QoS Technologies and Approaches for Converged IP Networks

IP Convergence is Here
Video

Data

Voice

Convergence

IP MULTISERVICE NETWORKS

IP Networks Designed For Packet Forwarding

Optimized to: Route Switch Not Aware of Users Applications A Packet is A Packet
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QoS - The Issue

Internal LAN Lots of Bandwidth
Voice EMAIL
Switch

External WAN Limited Bandwidth

Router

WEB

WWW Intranet

CITRIX

Survival of the Fittest

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Solution: An Intelligent Overlay

Making Networks Smarter QoS QoS

QoS Policy Enforcement QoS

Application and User Aware Network

QoS

What is Quality of Service (QoS)?

An umbrella term for multiple mechanisms that intelligently match the needs of specific applications to available network resources. .providing consistent and predictable application performance while optimizing your network utilization
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In a Nutshell...

Lets you decide how traffic runs on your network...

What does QoS provide?

Ability to ensure the timely delivery of information

Set priorities Allocate and control bandwidth Ability to deliver delay sensitive information while preserving enough bandwidth for other traffic

Means of differentiating and managing separate Classes of Service (CoS)

Traffic classification and bandwidth policies Traffic metrics, monitoring, and reporting tools
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QoS Spectrum
Guaranteed Absolute QoS End to end Provisioned Relative QoS

QoS Level

Business Class of Service Relative Priorities

Consumer Internet Best Effort E-mail Web Browsing Audio, Video Transaction Processing, E-mail, Voice, Video File Transfer Applications
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Real-time Broadcast Transmission

QoS Business Objectives

To enable enterprise and service providers to provide the required end user experience QoS is critical to enabling and enforcing different service levels
QoS devices establish and enforce traffic treatment policies Must be easy to monitor, define, control, and manage QoS policies to a prescribed service level and tailored to specific end-user needs

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QoS vs. Bandwidth Argument

Just throw bandwidth at the problem.

Bandwidth is becoming more available because of more fiber and new technologies in the core If the supply of bandwidth exceeds the demand, is there really a need for QoS?

Quality of Service
Satisfies the users expectation and experience by allocating network resources appropriately Traffic is divided into different classes Traffic is prioritized based on class Require bandwidth is allocated Policies are monitored and strictly enforced

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Business vs. Bandwidth Dilemma

HIGH Personal VoIP Multiplayer Video Games Latency Sensitivity Personal Real Audio Personal Web Traffic Client-Server APP. Traffic Business VoIP Executive VC User Authentication Process Net Mgmt Traffic

Business Cache Web Traffic Updates Business File Transfers Business Email Business Criticality Server Backups HIGH

Personal Email
LOW

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Can Bandwidth solve the problem?

Using this approach...

Is it sustainable in light of explosive annual traffic growth rates? Is it an efficient use of resources? Is it cost effective? Can it support differentiated classes of service? Does it ensure that mission critical and delay/loss sensitive applications get priority? Can new revenue generating services be built on this model?

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UnfortunatelyNO

Solving the Problem with QoS

The bandwidth approach may provide a short term solution in some cases but is not economically viable in the long term
Will be prohibitively expensive and will not achieve the desired results

Business customers need predictable application behavior, SLAs, and differentiated services based on QoS QoS must be implemented to enable revenue-generating value added services
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Challenge for Service Providers

Value-Add Services

If bandwidth prices decrease, new revenue sources are needed

Must offset commodity bandwidth pricing to avoid declining revenues and profits
QoS enables Value Added Services providing new revenue streams and differentiation

$
Bandwidth

Time

But...Bandwidth alone does not solve Enterprise QoS issues

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The Problem Without QoS

Subscriber Networks
Available Bandwidth

Service Provider Network

Limited Bandwidth

WAN Access

Available Bandwidth

Core Networks

Voice

EMAIL Access Aggregation Network Backbone Network

WEB

CITRIX

T1 - T3 fractional and clear channel

Survival of the Fittest

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QoS - Intelligence at the Edge

Subscriber Networks
Available Bandwidth
VOICE CITRX
EMAIL WEB

Service Provider Network

Voice

EMAIL Access Aggregation Network

IP/MPLS Network

WEB

CITRIX

Managed Bandwidth

WAN Access

Differentiated IP-QoS
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Strong Case for QoS

Although more bandwidth is available in the network core, QoS is required at the edge QoS policies provide the Intelligence for gold, silver, and bronze service levels, and to enable other premium IP services The core network provides raw transport Power based on explicit QoS defined at the ingress to the network

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QoS Requirements

Policies needed to assign, control, and monitor specific treatment of all traffic types
Transaction processing, voice, video, email, file transfers, web browsing Each have different priorities and bandwidth requirements Mission critical and delay sensitive traffic must receive highest priority while preserving weighted fairness for all traffic

Service Levels Agreements must be enforceable and measurable

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QoS Functional Capabilities

Devices performing:
Deep packet examination, classification and marking Traffic Prioritization Dynamic Bandwidth Allocation Sophisticated Queuing Policing and shaping Traffic Monitoring Measurement Reporting
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Traffic Classification
HTTP Telnet FTP SMTP H.323

Input

Classification

Classify packets into traffic classes based on matching of predefined traffic types Match against Application type Traffic source or destination

Users Servers
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Traffic Management Tools

Simple queuing

Sophisticated queuing
TCP rate shaping TOS/Differentiated services Caching

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Simple Queuing

Widely available
Routers, switches

Not very flexible

Flat resource allocation

Problems with session-oriented traffic

Queue drops cause retransmissions Retransmissions in congestion make the problem worse

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Simple Queuing Types

Weighted Fair Queuing (WFQ)

Priority queuing
FIFO queuing Queue drop enhancements
Random Early Discard (RED) Weighted Random Early Discard (WRED)

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Sophisticated Queuing

Much more flexible resource allocation

Hierarchical resource definition

More capable bandwidth management

Copes effectively with over-subscription Protects classes requiring resources while allowing effective sharing

Class-Based Queuing (CBQ) is a sophisticated approach

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CBQ and Classification

CBQ fundamentals
Traffic sorted into classes Each class has performance controls Hierarchical resource sharing Scheduler allocates resources to classes

Objectives
Prioritizes transmittal of packets based on class priority Maintains fairness Enforces class bandwidth limits Distributes excess bandwidth fairly to other classes according to link-sharing structure
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Class-Based Queuing
high Manages all IP-Traffic Manages all non-IP-Traffic

VoIP
Class=80kbps

Bandwidth Control for the outgoing Traffic

medium

eMail
Class=30kbps
Scheduler low Guaranteed Bandwidth Allocation at lower speeds medium Bandwidth borrowing if a class is not using all of its allocation

ftp
Class=20kbps

default
Class=15kbps

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TCP Rate Shaping

Consistent throughput Fairness among all flows Good link utilization Queue length and packet drop minimization

Keeps over-limit senders off the network

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TCP Background

Guaranteed delivery for data

Used by lots of applications

Web (HTTP), FTP, Telnet, Citrix, SAP, email (SMTP and POP), and many, many more

Designed to maximize throughput

Wants to go as fast as possible

Performs maximum rate checking

Built-in control and sensing

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TCP Has Built-in Rate Controls

Receiver can control sender

Sends maximum window size Sender must wait for acknowledgement before sending more than the window amount

Slowest network element paces data

Acknowledgements returned at the rate of delivered packets

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TCP Rate Shaping: Techniques

Window management
Manage senders rate Control amount of data in flight

Acknowledgement (ACK) management

Traffic pacing Controls packet delivery rate

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Caching

Saves web page objects locally

Prevents subsequent requests from going out to the network

Includes two big performance improvements
Reduces WAN traffic Returns cached objects at LAN speed

Reduces web traffic by 30-40%

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Caching Network

Fast Path For Cached Objects

Cache Network

Request For Objects Not in Cache

Web Server

Long Path With No Cache

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Effect of Caching on Response Time

0.8 0.7 0.6 0.5 Response time 0.4 (seconds) 0.3 0.2 0.1 0 1 2 1. 64kb link with no caching, 30kb allocated to HTTP traffic 2. Same link with caching enabled, only 15kb allocated to HTTP traffic HTTP TN3270

TN3270 HTTP

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Additional QoS Features

Feature
Fair Allocation of Bandwidth by Connection

Function
Divides class bandwidth evenly between the users Specifies the minimum guaranteed bandwidth to each session Defines what happens when a class is full (dropped, denied or squeezed)

Benefit

Results without it

One user cannot One user can take all the bandwidth swamp the entire class in a class starving the other users

Session Bandwidth and Admission Control

Guarantees session bandwidth

No bandwidth guarantees

Packet Size Optimization

Lets user set the maximum acceptable TCP packet size

Reduces queuing delays and jitter

Mixing large and small packets will introduce jitter, so applications like voice produce garbled sound

Queue Depth Control

Drops packets that have been queued for too long

Minimizes jitter and maintains predictable packet arrival times

Packet jitter so applications like voice produce garbled sound

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Business Drivers

Service Providers
Increase revenue with premium services Provide on-demand bandwidth provisioning Ensure SLA reporting and management
Increase margins with existing infrastructure

Enterprise
Optimize application response times Provide granular control of network resources Decrease support and bandwidth costs Increase productivity

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Issues

A Best-Effort IP Network has no intelligence Mismatch of LAN & WAN bandwidth Mismatch of applications to networks bandwidth

Different requirements :
Customers/Users (Premium vs. Standard) Usage Patterns (Business hours vs. weekend) Applications (e-Trading vs. MP3 download)

Networks Convergence: Voice, Data and Video

The solution is QoS

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What are SLAs?

A vehicle by which a Service Provider will make a formal and public statement regarding the Quality of Service a customer can expect to receive. It is a legal and binding contract that clarifies responsibilities, helps manage customer expectations and reduces uncertainty

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Example: Service Level Agreement 1

Managed Network Services and Data Center
Platinum Guaranteed B/W
1.5 Mbps Pipe Speed

Gold
512 kbps 3/4 Pipe

Silver
64 kbps 1/2 Pipe

Maximum Burst
Priority traffic (Other)
Core Business Email FTP Web

High Medium Low Medium

Medium Low Low Medium

Medium Low Low Low

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Example: Service Level Agreement 2

Voice over IP (example)
Platinum Guaranteed VoIP B/W # of Voice Sessions Maximum Burst Priority traffic (Other)
Core Business Email FTP Web x kbps X Pipe Speed

Gold
y kbps
Y 3/4 Pipe

Silver
z kbps

Z
1/2 Pipe

High Medium Low Medium

Medium Low Low Medium

Medium Low Low Low

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Why are these required?

Increased Competition
SLAs provide a major tool for differentiating a competitive service

Elevating above competitive price wars

Which has increased customer Churn Damaging to profits, brand, company image and degrades the service

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Creating Differentiation

Guaranteed Bandwidth with Burst

IP Application Prioritization
Prioritize business critical apps

Time of Day variables

SLA levels, Prioritize IP App, Group, Subnet, etc

Performance
Network delay and packet loss

Reporting and Billing

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Differentiated Services

Traffic Aggregation
Traffic is grouped into aggregates (FEC) All traffic in each FEC is treated the same QoS decisions made on a per-hop basis

Diff/Serv
IETF standard for traffic classification

Multi Protocol Label Switching (MPLS)

Path labels define path through network Also used for fast failover to redundant paths
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Traffic flow aggregation points

Enterprise Service Provider POP or Managed Data Center Service Provider Core Network

Location Aggregation Point Speed 1

64K - 100Mbps 100,000

2
10M - OC3 10,000,000

3
OC12 - OC192 1,000,000,000

Number of Flows

Fine grain classification is more computationally intensive towards the core network The solution is to move this task of granular classification to the edge of the network where the traffic originates.
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The first touch. . .

Services are provisioned from the edge

Must have the QoS Intelligence and Capability to provide them

The edge is independent of the core network but leverages its technologies
The core network uses QoS policies created at the edge as the basis for PHB, MPLS-LSPs, and traffic engineering

The edge provides the demarc point

It classifies, marks, polices, and shapes traffic
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DiffServ and MPLS Enabled Network

CPE Router

Edge

Edge

Router

Firewalls

QoSWorks LSP

QoSArray

Service Provider IP/MPLS Network Subscriber Networks or Branch Offices Data Center or Headquarters Network
QoSDirector

Differentiated IP-QoS
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QoS is key to moving up the service value chain

Enables Service Providers to deploy new revenuegenerating IP services

IP VPNs Tiered Services Managed Services Hosting Services

APPLICATION SERVICES

TRANSPORT

NETWORK ACCESS

Bottom line is increased profits

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5 Steps to Managing Your Network

Step 1: Monitor

Step 4: Refine Policies Step 5: See the Benefits Step 2: Analyze

Step 3: Set & Enforce Policies

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Step 1: Monitoring
Traffic Autodiscovery
IP Address Autodiscovery View all traffic LanWan and WanLan

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Step 2: Analyze

Decide which applications / users to prioritize Decide how much bandwidth to allocate

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Step 3: Set & Enforce Policies

Schedules: Set different policies at different times of day Bandwidth Management Settings:
Traffic type Guaranteed BW Burst BW Priority

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Step 3: Set & Enforce Policies

Complete Granular Control - Fine Tune Settings:
Session Bandwidth Admission control TOS Marking Max Queue Delay Max Packet Size

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Step 4: Refine Policies

Snapshot on how well the policy is performing:
BW In Use BW Allocated BW Bursting

Adjust bandwidth settings accordingly

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Step 5: See the Benefits

View Traffic Usage Trends
Report on SLAs Export Data for Billing

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Management Architecture
OSS, Billing System, Customer Portal, etc.

JAVA/XML
Billing File
Billing data
Device IP(1) Direction(2) TimeStamp(3) Type(4) Bandwidth(5) Burst(6) PktCnt(7) # PktCntDrop(8) PktCntBurst(9) ByteCnt(10) ByteCntDrop(11) ByteCntBurst(12) AvgQueSize(13) # CustomerID(14) PathName(15) 192.168.210.18 1 991833300000 2

QoSDirector Server
JDBC

Event Management

Relational Database

Oracle Database

SNMP

HTTP

Telnet

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Enterprise Case Study #1:

File Transfers Killing Citrix Response Time
Large Plastics Manufacturing Company
20 major locations Mission-critical Citrix traffic running concurrently with large file transfers Unhappy users saw degraded and unpredictable response time for Citrix applications
Throughput Improvement ThroughputImprovement
40 35 30
Kbps

Responsetime Improvement Response Time Improvement

30 25
Milliseconds

34.3

24.6

25 20 15 10 5 0

22.8

20 14.9 15 10 5 0

Before Sitara QoS Before Sitara QoS

After Sitara QoS After Sitara QoS

Before Sitara QoS Before Sitara QoS

After Sitara QoS After Sitara QoS

50 % More throughput for Citrix 40 % Improvement in response time.

All Without Upgrading Bandwidth

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Enterprise Case Study # 2:

Incoherent VoIP
Large Latin American Gas Distribution Company
Network running large file transfers Wanted to move internal phone traffic to IP network Experienced low voice quality and unpredictable delay
Perceptual Speech Quality Measurement Perceptual Speech Quality Measurement
3 2.48 2.5 2 1.5 1 0.5 0 Before Sitara BeforeSitara QoS QoS After Sitara After Sitara QoS QoS 1.82
Milliseconds Mean Score

Voice Latency Voice Latency

300 250 200 150 100 50 0 Before Sitara BeforeSitara QoS QoS After Sitara After Sitara QoS QoS 105 243

PSQM score of 2.0 or less is toll quality

Latency below 150 ms is considered toll quality

Enabled Toll Quality VoIP Over Existing Network

Source: Mier Communications Inc.
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Enterprise Case Study # 3: World Wide Wait

Large Multinational Chemical Company
Multiple users accessing the same web pages Long wait times to access business critical websites Unhappy users, overburdened network
Download Time

Download time W/O Sitara 6 min.

400 350 300

Seconds

250 200 150 100 50 0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12

Download time with Sitara <1 sec

Before Sitara QoS

After Sitara QoS

Transparent Deployment; No Additional Hardware, No Network Reconfiguration

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Service Provider Case Study #1:

Break Free from Commodity Pricing
Customer Site y Customer Site x
ACCT ENG MKTG

Service Offerings Prior to QoS Best Effort $4000/month

Data Center

OSS/BSS

Net Mgmt

Service Offerings Possible with QoS Supreme $7000/month Premiere $5500/month Best Effort $4000/month

Billing Radius

APPN APP 1 APP 2

Allows Service Provider to:

Move from commodity based to value based pricing

Investment of $500K projected to yield $6M in annual incremental revenue

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QoS Summary

Flexibility to define priorities, bandwidth, and intelligently optimize each specific flow in real time Ease of policy configuration, monitoring, reporting, and enforcement of SLA Deliver predictable performance for all services and applications Optimize efficiency in managing network resources with dynamic policy adaptation in light of changing traffic and network conditions

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Thank You!
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