Open Access

Bei der Datenübertragung im Internet ist es wünschenswert, daß unterschiedliche Datenpackete unterschiedlich behandelt werden können, damit für die zeitkritischen Anwendungen wie Internet-Telefonie die größere Priorität gewährleisten könnte. Erst dann kann ein Netzbetreiber seinen Kunden verschiedene Dienstqualitäten anbieten. Zwei grundsätzliche Mechanismen existieren, um dem Netzwerk solche Anforderungen mitzuteilen: explizit, indem vor der eigentlichen Datenübertragung Kotrollnachrichten ausgetauscht werden; implizit, indem jedes Datenpacket eine Kennzeichnung erhält. Der zweite, Differentiated Services(DS), Ansatz ist Thema dieses Referates. Bei DS wird jedem Packet den sogenannten DS-Codepoint (DSCP) im IP-Header zugewiesen, und dementsprechend erfährt ein Datenpaket eine bestimmte Behandlung durch einen DS-fähigen Router. Drei unterschiedliche Dienstklassen wurde bisher spezifiziert: Best-Effort entspricht dem derzeit im Internet verwendeten Mechanismus; Premium-Service entspricht einer virtuellen Mietleitung und soll eine rasche Weiterleitung von Paketen gewährleisten; Datenpakete mit Assured Forwarding Service (AFS) sollen besser behandelt werden als Best-Effort. Bei AFS wurden insgesamt drei Verlustklassen und vier Weiterleitungsklassen definiert. Es wird auch verschiedene Typ von DS-Router vorgestellt und diskutiert. Der praktische Einsatz erfolgte bisher immer in Laborumgebung (Uni Bern, Uni Karlsruhe, EPFL, Forschungszentrum NEC Research), größere Feldversuche stehen noch aus.

Dynamic configuration and adaptation of resources for QoS-aware applications in heterogeneous access network environment (UMTS, WIMAX, WLAN DVB-T, DVB-H) using automated tools is a challenge today. The focus of this paper is a toolkit for intelligent management of resource allocation in heterogeneous network infrastructures based on policies of different actors (network operator, service providers and users). Policy based management of resources for QoS-aware applications (Video-on-Demand, Mobile TV) dependent on network capabilities, context learning and preferences of the policy actors is proposed, which enhances the current state-of-the-art and IETF standardisation. The policy management toolkit includes components for policy specification, adaptation and enforcement, which are interacting using policy repository. The design allows the automated resource adaptation for QoS based applications based on context information and hierarchical dependencies of policy actors. A learning component is integrated in order to discover the context considering measurement and monitoring data. The policy management tookit is discussed, emphasising on ontology driven policy repository design, context learning and flexible scenario-oriented management interfaces for policy specifications.

For the evaluation of the received signal strength indication (RSSI) a different methodology compared to previous publications is introduced in this paper by exploiting a spectral scan feature of recent Qualcomm Atheros WiFi NICs. This method is compared to driver reports and to an industrial grade spectrum analyzer. During the conducted outdoor experiments a decreased scattering of the RSSI compared to previous publications is observed. By applying well-known mathematical tests for normality it is possible to show that the RSSI does not follow a normal distribution in a line-of-sight outdoor environment. The evaluated spectral scan features offers additional possibilities to develop interference classifiers which is an important step for frequency allocation in long-distance 802.11 networks.

Fast and seamless handoff procedures for IP-based mobile communication networks have recently been a major field of research. Various methods have been proposed that focus on micro-mobility suppport, i.e., on mobility management within a single administrative domain.

Multipoint data-communications is among the hot topics of communication research and development. A lot of studies and ideas have been presented, the vast majority focusing on a homogenous environment in terms of physical network, communication protocol stacks, coding schemes and/or service qualities. First straight-forward implementations –Steve Deering‘s IP multipoint on the MBone being the most popular one– already give an idea of the capabilities of a multipoint environment.

An Information on Demand teleservice that was developed at the German National Research Center for Information Technology (GMD) provides remote access to multimedia information consisting of audio, video, and text [jonas et al. 94]. It uses a bidirectional narrowband message link between the end user and the service provider, and a unidirectional broadband data link from the service provider to the end user. Since the IoD teleservice is used across a satellite connection (among others), it turned out to be necessary to implement an access protocol that is optimized for the access of real-time multimedia data across a long-delay high-bandwidth link, a long fat pipe [jacobsen et al. 92]. This paper introduces the MediaService Protocol (MSP) and describes a prototype implementation (version 0.6).

Three emerging technologies are combined in a setup that has been installed and tested at GMD - the German National Research Center for Information Technology: 1. Multimedia Telecooperation Applications; 2. ATM-based high-speed networks; 3. Satellite links. The results are promising: After some initial problems, the complete scenario is up and running, allowing the interconnection of local high-speed infrastructures in rural areas to a core network via satellite. This paper describes the R&D background and state- of-the-art that led us to this approach. It then describes the communication infrastructure and the application infra- structure of the setup, the problems we had and the solu- tions we found. Finally, our experiences are summarized, and an outlook is made for future implementations.

stract Expected real-time applications like video telephony, video conferences and document retrieval can either take advantage of human’s ability to cope with missing pictures or bad audio quality, or of — time consuming, therefore inconvenient — retransmission.

With the rapid advances in multimedia content delivery technologies, there is an increasing challenge for efficient Quality of Service (QoS) based multicast transport in mobile Internet environment. This paper discusses architectural approach for provision of multicast services in heterogeneous mobile IPv6 environment using context transfer. Following issues of QoS based mobile multicast transport are addressed: - Application of context transfer between access routers for seamless handover of active multicast services; - Adaptation of multicast group management and routing designed for wired IPv6 infrastructures to heterogeneous mobile environment; - Candidate access router discovery and context aware user interfaces for optimised handover; - Reliable mobile multicast for content delivery supported by context transfer at access routers; - Distributed QoS management of multicast services in heterogeneous mobile environment. The work is part of the mobile architecture developed in the EU IST project DAIDALOS.

The MoMoSat service will enable mobile end-users to view, manage, annotate, and communicate mapbased information in the field. The handled information exists of a huge volume of raster (satellite or aerial images) and vector data (i.e. street networks, cadastral maps or points of interest), as well as text-specific geo-referenced textual notes (the so-called 'GeoNotes') and real-time voice.

WiFi-based Long Distance (WiLD) networks have emerged as a promising alternative technology approach for providing Internet in rural areas. An important factor in network planning of these wireless networks is estimating the path loss. In this work, we present various propagation models we found suitable for point-to-point (P2P) operation in the WiFi frequency bands. We conducted outdoor experiments with commercial offthe- shelf (COTS) hardware in our testbed made of 7 different long-distance links ranging from 450 m to 10.3 km and a mobile measurement station. We found that for short links with omni-directional antennas ground-reflection is a measurable phenomenon. For longer links, we show that either FSPL or the Longley-Rice model provides accurate results for certain links. We conclude that a good site survey is needed to exclude influences not included in the propagation models.

WiFi-based Long Distance (WiLD) networks have emerged as a promising alternative approach for Internet in rural areas. The main hardware components of these networks are commercial off-the-shelf WiFi radios and directional antennas. During our experiences with real-world WiLD networks, we encountered that interference among long-distance links is a major issue even with high gain directional antennas. In this work, we are providing an in-depth analysis of these interference effects by conducting simulations in ns-3. To closely match the real-world interference effects, we implemented a module to load radiation pattern of commonly used antennas. We analyze two different interference scenarios typically present as a part of larger networks. The results show that side-lobes of directional antennas significantly influence the throughput of long-distance WiFi links depending on the orientation. This work emphasizes that the usage of simple directional antenna models needs to be considered carefully.