Quality of Service in Integrated Voice, Video, and Data Networks

A Memotec Communications White Paper

Introduction
Advances in todays technology enabling integrated provisioning of Voice, Video, and
Data services offer much promise to enterprise customers in enabling them to both save
money on their telecommunications costs and offer new services on their network
enhancing productivity. Digital Signal Processing (DSP) technology and Voice
Compression algorithms have advanced to the point that toll quality voice can be offered
over these new integrated infrastructures, with no noticeable degradation of voice quality
to users.
These advances, though, are useless if an effective mechanism cannot be implemented for
assuring Quality of Service (QoS) for these integrated applications. Todays backbone
integrated infrastructures may be Frame Relay based, ATM based, IP based, satellite
based, or ISDN based, or any combination of these, and an effective mechanism for
assuring QoS must work regardless of how the backbone infrastructure is implemented.
Memotec offers a complete, working solution for these QoS issues in todays
heterogeneous networks. These mechanisms are built upon field proven techniques,
which enable high quality voice, video, and data to be delivered for todays demanding
business applications.
Issues Involved in Assuring QoS
There are many issues that may affect the QoS delivered for network based integrated
services. Essentially, these issues arise from the fact that different traffic types require
different levels of service from the network. Some examples of these are:

Packetized Voice Traffic. Packetized Voice traffic is characterized as relatively low

bandwidth (typically 8 Kbps), but requiring a low latency delivery to ensure high
quality audio.
Video Traffic. Video Traffic is generally higher bandwidth (128 Kbps to 384 Kbps
or more), but still requiring low latency for high quality video images.
File Transfers. File transfers require high bandwidth, but can be allowed to suffer
latency through the network.
E-Mail. E-mail is typically low bandwidth, and can also be allowed to suffer some
latency through the network.
Legacy applications. Legacy applications such as SNA may require moderate
bandwidth, with moderate latency requirements.

Quality of Service in Voice, Video, and Data Networks

2000 Memotec Communications, Inc.

If one analyzes these requirements, one can see that a mechanism for ensuring QoS in a
network must be capable of: identifying traffic types (even specific applications running
over IP); prioritizing these traffic types; and then delivering them over the network in
such a way that the QoS requirements for the service type are met.
What are some of the issues that may affect the QoS offered to these services?
1. Large packets delivered from lower priority, high bandwidth applications may affect
the latency for higher priority, latency intolerant applications (such as voice). For
example, a 1500 byte packet delivered as part of a file transfer over a 64Kbps link
will take 187 ms to be transmitted. This means a voice packet cannot be transmitted
during this interval. As a result, voice cuts or delays will be heard for voice traffic
queued behind this large packet.

Voice
Packet

Data Packet

187 ms Delay

2. Different speed links in the network may mean that packets can get queued internally
in the network. When packets queue internally in the backbone of a network, latency
and therefore quality can be affected.

2 Mbps

64 Kbps

Packets will queue

internally in the
network waiting for
slower link

3. Network based IP applications may not respect the QoS policy set up for the network.
In a network of hundreds of PCs, it may be impossible to adequately police QoS
policies on each desktop, thus resulting in policy violations which can affect QoS.

Quality of Service in Voice, Video, and Data Networks

2000 Memotec Communications, Inc.

If this FTP packet is tagged as

high priority, other voice traffic
may be affected

LAN

WAN

A flexible Quality of Service mechanism must be able to handle all these traffic types
without affecting the quality offered to other services. In addition, the QoS mechanisms
must be designed to operate over a reasonably large set of network topologies and
potential congestion conditions.
Requirements for Effective QoS
In order to effectively manage QoS, therefore, based upon the above requirements,
several requirements must be met:
1. Quality of Service at Link Level must be employed. If the user is running IP over a
Frame Relay network, then if the device employed cannot ensure QoS over Frame
Relay, then the QoS mechanism employed at the IP layer will not be effective.
Therefore, a solution that effectively implements a QoS mechanism must be able to
deliver the QoS at the Frame Relay or ATM layer.
2. Mechanisms for Identifying Traffic Types must be employed. If the mechanism
employed cannot tell if an IP packet is important (perhaps Voice) or less important
(perhaps FTP), then the mechanism will not be effective.
3. Mechanisms for Implementing a QoS Policy must be employed. If the device
employed cannot police the network and ensure that a rogue user cannot override a
quality policy, then QoS cannot be adequately ensured. Packets should be capable of
being identified as to specified quality policy, and then enforced.
4. Mechanisms used to implement the QoS mechanism must cooperatively interact with
other, third party, network elements. If the QoS mechanism only works with a single
vendors equipment, then the network may become unmanageable if third party
devices are added later.
Memotec has implemented a QoS mechanism within its CX- series which meets these
criteria, and enables real world management of QoS in real world networks under real
world conditions.

Quality of Service in Voice, Video, and Data Networks

2000 Memotec Communications, Inc.

Memotecs Quality of Service Mechanisms

As outlined in the previous section, the Quality of Service delivered to IP based
applications is only as good as the Quality of Service mechanism implemented at the link
layer. Memotecs primary objective is to enable QoS for IP, Frame Relay, or ATM
based applications, and to use link layer (Frame Relay and ATM) QoS mechanisms
to ensure IP based applications receive their requested QoS. This is an extremely
key point, and the foundation upon which Memotecs QoS mechanisms are built. For
example, since ATM natively provides the ability to offer different QoS for different
Virtual Circuits, an effective QoS mechanism will permit higher priority IP traffic to be
sent over higher priority, traffic tuned PVCs, while lower priority IP traffic is sent over a
different PVC with different traffic parameters. The advantage of this approach, that is,
using link layer QoS mechanisms to ensure IP QoS means that IP can take advantage of
the sophisticated QoS mechanisms built in to ATM to assure QoS for IP applications.
Frame Relay based Quality of Service Mechanisms
Memotec has implemented a sophisticated, field proven mechanism for ensuring QoS
over Frame Relay networks. The mechanism is built upon four basic foundations:
1. Fragmentation. As outlined previously, larger low priority packets when transmitted
can delay smaller, high priority packets. Fragmentation ensures that the larger packet
is broken into smaller pieces to make the delay not perceptible. However, excessive
fragmentation may result in poor data throughput. It is important to ask your vendor
how much fragmentation is required to assure no impact to higher priority
applications.
2. Prioritization. Memotec implements four priority queues internally which can be
used to sort traffic. Voice and Video traffic, for example, may use the highest priority
queue, while FTP traffic may use the lowest queues. Users may decide, based upon
their desired QoS policy, what traffic goes into what priority queue. In addition, the
user may control the relative priority between these queues in order to fine tune the
desired QoS policy.
3. Transmission Scheduling. This is an important mechanism which is not implemented
by many vendors. Packets to be transmitted over a link are not transmitted based
upon an as soon as possible mechanism, but are transmitted on a as soon as the
remote side can receive it mechanism. This mechanism is designed to avoid queuing
in the backbone network which can cause impact to high priority traffic. This is a
subtle issue, but quite important once the network is operational in a real world
situation.
4. Congestion Management. The Frame Relay congestion management mechanisms,
such as Discard Eligible (DE), Backward Explicit Congestion Notification (BECN),
and Forwards Explicit Congestion Notification (FECN) are implemented in such a
way that in times of network congestion or transmission in excess of the Committed
Information Rate (CIR), lower priority packets are tagged to be discarded if necessary
by the network rather than the higher priority voice packets.

Quality of Service in Voice, Video, and Data Networks

2000 Memotec Communications, Inc.

Memotec employs techniques that enable a user to specify which protocol uses which
priority queue, which means that he can effectively tailor the mechanisms to his desired
quality policy.
These four mechanisms, taken together, form a sound foundation for delivery of QoS at
the Frame Relay level. As you will see later, they also support the delivery of QoS at the
IP level. In addition, they are interoperable with public or private Frame Relay
backbones, which means that they will work even if the backbone of the network is not
based upon Memotec equipment.
Quality of Service for H.320 Video over Frame Relay
When utilizing H.320 Video traffic over a Frame Relay network, the above QoS
mechanisms are used to ensure that the video traffic is treated appropriately. Memotecs
VideoFramer converts the H.320 video stream into a Frame Relay stream, which can then
be internally prioritized as above to ensure that it is treated as high priority traffic.
ATM Based Quality of Service Mechanisms
For ATM based networks, Memotec has an equally strong set of mechanisms to support
QoS. These mechanisms take advantage of some of the inherent mechanisms that ATM
has to support QoS, but extend beyond them as well.
Fundamentally, ATM enables Virtual Circuits to be defined with a set of traffic
parameters that control the flow of data through the ATM network. Once a set of these
parameters has been established for a virtual circuit, these parameters can essentially be
guaranteed through the network. Thus, a strong building block exists for delivery of
Quality of Service in ATM network.
Memotec implements several standard ATM traffic types (such as Constant Bit Rate
(CBR), Variable Bit Rate (VBR), Variable Bit Rate Real Time (VBR-rt), and
Unspecified Bit Rate (UBR). These traffic types enable a user to match a circuit with the
desired type of traffic that flows inside the circuit. For example, since video traffic is
generally constant rate, a CBR circuit can be defined to carry the video traffic. LAN
traffic may use a UBR circuit to take whatever bandwidth is left after higher priority
applications transmit.
In addition to this, Memotec implements eight (8) priority levels for these circuits. These
priority levels are used to prioritize the transmission of information for different circuit
types. This enables a user to have a high degree of control over how QoS can be
effectively implemented in an ATM network.
Again, Memotecs mechanisms are flexible such that a user, based upon his desired QoS
policy, can control which protocols and traffic types on his network get assigned which
priority and circuit type. In addition, they are interoperable and work with mechanisms
employed on third party ATM backbone switches to ensure they work over real networks.
Quality of Service in Voice, Video, and Data Networks

2000 Memotec Communications, Inc.

IP Based Quality of Service Mechanisms

Memotec has designed and implemented a quite sophisticated mechanism for delivery of
QoS for IP traffic. The mechanism, as described before, builds upon the QoS
mechanisms implemented for Frame Relay and ATM, and is also standards based
enabling it to work with third party, standards based routers. The mechanism is based
upon the IETF Differentiated Services RFC (diff-serv), which uses the IP header to signal
the priority of the IP packet between routers. Memotec uses the Type of Service bits
(TOS bits) to enable 8 different priorities of IP traffic to be recognized and handled
appropriately. The diff-serv RFC, while specifying exactly how to signal priority, does
not discuss how each router should ensure the priority of the traffic. Memotec
implements mechanisms for routing and tagging packets, as well as mechanisms for
ensuring that they get treated appropriately.
Memotecs IP based QoS mechanisms work in a three-step process. First, packets
incoming into the box are identified by their IP header as to priority. Next, according to
the QoS policy configured, these priorities may be overridden or set in the IP header.
These policies may set the priority based upon traffic type (e.g. FTP traffic, e-mail traffic,
Web traffic), source IP address, destination IP address, source port number, destination
port number, etc. Thus, completely customized policies may be set up for a network.
Finally, the packet is routed and the link layer QoS mechanisms are used to actually
implement the quality policy. As an example, if a packet is determined to be a high
priority IP traffic, it is sent to the high priority Frame Relay queue as described before,
where the combination of Frame Relay prioritization, fragmentation, and transmission
scheduling are used to ensure that is appropriately delivered through the network. The
user can decide which ATM or Frame Relay priorities are appropriate for which IP
packet priorities.
Memotec has further extended these mechanisms by enabling different virtual circuits to
handle these different priority IP packets. For example, if a user has two ATM virtual
circuits, one with a CBR service and one with a UBR service, the user can configure high
priority IP packets (perhaps an IP video session) to use the CBR circuit, while all other IP
traffic uses the UBR circuit. Thus, very fine control of QoS for IP can be attained
through the backbone, built upon the ATM QoS mechanisms.
IP traffic with both
Video and Low
Priority Web Traffic

Video traffic sent

over High Priority
CBR Circuit

Quality of Service in Voice, Video, and Data Networks

Low priority Web

traffic sent over low
priority UBR circuit

2000 Memotec Communications, Inc.

Quality of Service for H.323 Traffic

Voice over IP (VoIP) poses some special issues for control of Quality of Service. Due to
the nature in which H.323 passes voice traffic, it can be difficult to design a basic policy
that can assure all H.323 traffic is treated appropriately. Memotec has designed
mechanisms that enable this H.323 traffic to be handled with effective QoS through the
network.
Memotec has the ability to internally gateway PSTN traffic to H.323 traffic, as well as to
route external VoIP terminal traffic. Each of these needs to be analyzed separately for
QoS.
For internally generated VoIP traffic, Memotec internally recognizes this as VoIP voice
traffic. Since all the traffic is originating from within the Memotec unit, this is relatively
easy to do. Once identified as voice traffic, it is treated as high priority, and transmitted
on the high priority Frame Relay or ATM queues.

IP Network
H.323

Traffic is
automatically
identified as H.323
because it originates
in our unit

For external H.323 traffic, the problem is a bit more complicated. Since it can be hard to
identify this traffic, Memotec has chosen a different mechanism to solve the problem.
The mechanism is called proxy H.323, and it enables LAN based H.323 terminals to
communicate with remote H.323 terminals by utilizing the Memotec unit as an
intermediary.
Using this mechanism, which is transparent to the end terminals, QoS can be controlled,
since the proxied session will then appear to us as an internally generated H.323 session.
There are additional benefits which result form this technique including security and
bandwidth management, but these are not the subject of this paper.

Quality of Service in Voice, Video, and Data Networks

2000 Memotec Communications, Inc.

Proxy
H.323 session
Proxy
H.323 session
LAN based
VoIP H.323
terminal

In the example above, the LAN based VoIP terminal places a call to the remote phone.
Instead of the connection going end to end directly, the call is effectively terminated and
regenerated again by the local unit. By doing this, it is known to be VoIP traffic and
treated as high priority.
Conclusion
Assurance of Quality of Service is critical for proper operation of an integrated voice,
video, and data network. The evolution of IP based applications place more stress and
require more sophistication in equipment designed to support these applications over real
world networks, while delivering services at similar reliability levels to those experienced
over non-integrated traditional networks. The ability to have a flexible mechanism that
enables a user to tailor the QoS policy to his specific needs is a critical component of an
overall integrated network.

Quality of Service in Voice, Video, and Data Networks

2000 Memotec Communications, Inc.