A Concept of inter-AS Priority Signaling using BGP Attributes

• Main Author: Knoll, Thomas Martin
• Other Authors: TU Chemnitz, Fakultät für Elektrotechnik und Informationstechnik
• Format: Others
• Language: English
• Published: Universitätsbibliothek Chemnitz 2009
• Subjects: Class of Service; CoS; Interconnection; QoS; ddc:000; ddc:500; Attribut; Border Gateway Protocol 4; Dienstgüte
• Online Access: http://nbn-resolving.de/urn:nbn:de:bsz:ch1-200900238; http://nbn-resolving.de/urn:nbn:de:bsz:ch1-200900238; http://www.qucosa.de/fileadmin/data/qucosa/documents/5745/data/paper_knoll_networks2008.pdf; http://www.qucosa.de/fileadmin/data/qucosa/documents/5745/20090023.txt

The increasing number of delay and loss critical services in packet networks require differentiated packet handling in the forwarding plane. Quality of Service (QoS) guarantees can be given for networks using resource reservation and admission control. However, such strategies require complex control plane extensions and might lead to higher operation expenditures. Network operators therefore often use over-provisioning and traffic differentiation to offer cheaper class of service quality in their internet protocol (IP) packet networks. Priority marking and forwarding of packetized data traffic can be realized mainly using different layer two and three mechanisms. The number of differentiated classes and their autonomous system (AS) internal implementation is at the operator’s choice. This paper proposes a concept of cross-domain and cross-layer priority signaling between packet switched networks to be used at the inter-AS peering points. It makes use of the Border Gateway Protocol (BGP) as the predominantly used routing protocol for AS peering communication. A new BGP-4 path attribute is used to convey the structured priority information. The new concept ensures that all receiving AS peers are consistently and comprehensively informed about the QoS handling within the IP prefix originating AS. Based on this information, all ASes can perform close QoS treatment approximation in a cross-domain and cross-layer manner. The approach is now work in progress at the IETF.