Application-level Quality-of-Service Control of Real-time Flows in Best-effort Networks

"Internet performance is far from being satisfactory while transporting real-time ormedia content, such as video or audio. The case is worse for content generated byinteractive real-time applications, such as Internet telephony and videoconferencing.Persistent and uncertain end-to-end delays and delay variations result inunsatisfactory end-user experience. Several alternatives have been proposed toenable the Internet and the Next Generation Internet to efficiently transportmultimedia content. Most require network infrastructure modifications to supportthe various multimedia-related protocols being proposed.It is proposed to address application-level Quality-of-Service (QoS) control ofinteractive real-time applications in best-effort networks, such as the Internet,through the use of the recently developed Active Content Control (ACC) technology.This adaptive predictive flow control technology embedded in RTSwitch, a contentswitch for interactive flows residing at the network edges, promises to enhancethe performance of the current Internet in delivering interactive content, withoutany core network infrastructure modifications.In Phase I of this SBIR project the feasibility of application-level QoS control ofinteractive real-time flows in best-effort networks will be demonstrated throughextensive packet-level simulations/emulations. Based on recent developments inapplication-level QoS control of non-interactive real-time flows in best-e