Managing Service Level Quality

Book excerpt: QoS (Quality of Service) and Network Management are old topics. However, the fusion of IP style multimedia and wireless networks (3G) means that network managers who might previously have dealt with one or the other, must now manage and provide service guarantees for the both. This is where Managing Service Level Quality across Wireless and Fixed Networks steps in. It begins by examining the mechanisms that already existed in fixed IP data networks prior to the introduction of probe and agent technology. A look at these later developments is then supplemented with a real-world scenario of how real time application performance monitoring can not only provide service level management but can also aid in root cause analysis. This same model is then applied to a wireless environment examining which elements are required to be able to deliver multimedia services across 2nd and 3rd generation mobile networks, detailing the components of data networking that will assist in guaranteeing service level performance and the constraints placed on those guarantees when passing services over an air interface to a wireless-enabled device. It asks a simple question: will multimedia applications and the guaranteed levels of service required by them work when traversing from fixed to wireless networks? It tracks QoS components and mechanisms of both environments and looks at what will provide the glue in this brave new converged world and also provides empirical data to back up the conclusions drawn. First book available which applies QoS techniques and technologies to wireless/mobile networks 3G/UMTS Deals with the search for the real time information that constitutes the "customer experience" in terms of application performance so that service levels can be verified against measurable and relevant data in a true end-to-end manner across both fixed and wireless networks Presents probe and agent technology Features a real-world scenario of how real time application performance monitoring can not only provide service level management but can also aid in root cause analysis - this will be of particular interest to practitioner Analyses which elements are required in order to deliver multimedia services across 2nd and 3rd generation mobile networks Details the components of data networking that will assist in guaranteeing service level performance Essential reading for Wireless and IP data network professionals/practitioners, network managers and architects, technical consultants, quality assessment engineers, infrastructure vendors, application developers, portal designers, wireline operators, lecturers, postgraduates, senior undergraduate students and industry trainees.