 The magazine of the Melbourne PC User Group Internet QoS - For the Bookshelf Major Keary |
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A source of frequent complaint is the Quality of Service (QoS) experienced by Internet users, although one has to keep in mind that a perception of poor QoS is not always confirmed by measurable performance indicators. Nevertheless, there are problems that stem from the fact that the Internet's fundamental architecture has not changed; there is no certainty in the delivery time of packets, something that "does not mesh well with new applications such as Internet telephony or digital video conferencing". The Internet Engineering Task Force (IETF) has been developing new technologies and standards to provide an acceptable QoS, and in this book - Internet QoS - the author describes "four technologies that have emerged as core building blocks for supporting QoS on the Internet". They are, Integrated Services, Differentiated Services, Multiprotocol Label Switching (MPLS), and Internet Traffic Engineering (IETF).
The author, Dr Zheng Wang, is a member of the IETF and an internationally recognised expert on high-speed routers and optical transport systems. He has patents in IP routing, QoS mechanisms, MPLS, Differentiated Services, traffic engineering, and optical networking.
In this book he examines "the architectures and mechanisms for supporting resource assurance to application flows and end users". The primary audience is engineers, and the style assumes the reader is already familiar with basic concepts and details of the various Internet protocols. However, anyone who has an interest in Internet QoS, and some familiarity with the engineering side, should find it worth reading. There is no superfluous baggage in the text; the writing is concise, which makes particular information easy to find. There are comprehensive reading lists at the end of each chapter.
| Zheng Wang: Internet QoS ISBN 1-55860-608-4 Published by Morgan Kaufmann, 239 pp., RRP $105.05 incl. GST |
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Reprinted from the July 2002 issue of PC Update, the magazine of Melbourne PC User Group, Australia
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