Architecture and protocols for the seamless and integrated next generation IP networks

The paper presents a novel end-to-end seamless framework to support end-to-end Quality of Service and Traffic Engineering. The network model is based on the MPLS/DiffServ paradigm and addresses the definition of a network architecture according to both users and network providers requirements. A first solution relies on the central- ized MPLS/DiffServ based Multi-protocol Access Inter-Domain (MAID) architecture. This architecture allows a seamless QoS-IP service setup through proper Users-Network Interfaces and inter-domain communica- tion through Network-to-Network Interfaces. A fully distributed solution is also presented to address critical scalability issues and to improve net- work resilience. The overall architecture has been validated by means of functional tests carried out on operational testbeds based on Linux PC platforms.