Objectives
AGAVE's key objective is to develop an approach
for open end-to-end service provisioning in order to support added-value
IP-based services. The focus of the project is on the core networks
of the Internet, and "end-to-end" means across these core
networks. Quality of service, reliability and availability will
be enabled through different Network Planes within domains, whose
interconnection will form global Parallel Internets that will support
the needs of well-defined services, with VoIP being a key service.
Specific sub-objectives are to:
- Identify a representative set of services and associated
quality and reliability requirements to drive the parallel Network
Planes, e.g. VoIP, video-conferencing and streaming, VoD and
VPNs.
- Specify a business model for the stakeholders - including
customers, SPs and INPs - identifying relevant open interactions,
i.e. SLSs required, between SP-INP for service provisioning,
INP-INP for end-to-end network provisioning and SP-SP for end-to-end
service provisioning.
- Identify the requirements and design an open interface to
allow IP added-value service software to interact with the underlying
network resources for service operation, opening up INP networks
in order to foster an added-value IP-based service market.
- Develop a reference architecture for the planning, provisioning
and control of QoS-enabled networks that support parallel planes
for service separation, focusing on an approach that can be
easily deployed, operated and managed.
- Investigate a number of approaches for parallel plane separation
to support QoS-aware networking, relying principally on differentiated
routing, with differentiated forwarding mainly in access links.
Options include multi-topology IGPs for relatively soft guarantees,
MPLS TE LSPs for stricter guarantees and LSPs with bandwidth
reservations for very strict guarantees.
- Investigate the inter-domain extension of these planes to
form Parallel Internets and the inter-connection of non-adjacent
QoS-enabled domains for contiguous support of end-to-end services.
- Investigate how to select and control optimal inter-domain
paths, considering improvements and extensions to BGP and cooperative
traffic engineering mechanisms between domains. Consider MPLS
LSPs and IPv4/IPv6 tunnels to realise those paths.
- Devise intra- and inter-domain traffic engineering approaches
for the coexistence of the Network Planes and Parallel Internets
respectively, considering load sharing, resilience and scalability.
- Evaluate and validate the overall approach, architecture,
algorithms and protocols through simulation studies to assess
performance and scalability and through testbed prototypes for
proof-of-concept implementation.
- Benefit from the key position of some AGAVE partners in the
IETF, ETSI, ITU-T and IPsphere Forum to contribute project results
to these bodies and also to publicise them in international
conferences and journals and participate in consensus forming
activities in the context of the FP6 IST programme.
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