CAREER: Priority Users and Applications on the Internet

University Of Missouri-Kansas City, Columbia MO

Investigators

Abstract

This work seeks to build a foundation for an academic career that is distinctive, has an impact on the lives of students, and makes a lasting and valuable contribution to society. It seeks to accomplish these objectives using the following approach. -This project proposes the development and performance evaluation of mechanisms for the support of high priority users over public broadband TCP/IP networks (i.e., "the Internet"). Support for these types of users will enhance Internet service provider (ISP) revenue opportunities as well as support activities of importance to society, such as military, national security, and emergency response operations. -Impacts will be made on the lives of students through the development of innovative internship and entrepreneurial training opportunities for undergraduate and graduate students. New courses and curricula will also be developed to teach principles and new knowledge gained from this project's research work. Students will actively participate in this research, including undergraduates and those from underrepresented groups. - This academic career will only be successful if it passionately pursues research which goes beyond technology development to make a difference in the lives of people. This work provides the PI a vehicle and opportunity to build an academic career that pursues such a passion. It is important to note that the research focus of this project will be on priority users, more than on the traffic they generate or the services they are seeking to use. Priority users may or may not expect high quality of service (e.g.,low delay, high data rates) or applications that place high demands on the network (e.g., interactive video). Without fail, however, all priority users will expect network services to be available to them and to perform reliably, regardless of the state of the network or the context in which it is operating (e.g., after a natural disaster). National security/emergency preparedness users are of particular interest because they frequently need to perform their activities when it is most difficult for networks to support them due to failures and overloaded traffic. The primary requirements for priority users are as follows. - Availability - Immediate access to network resources whenever needed. -Dependability - Ability to carry out and complete a communication session, no matter what is happening in the network or social context. -Stability - Priority users must be able to trust the technologies they use, even as those technologies evolve. In addition, packet-level quality of service and preferential treatment may be important to some priority users, but all priority users expect the above three primary requirements to be met. This work proposes four project tasks that are staged over five years. The first three tasks will develop mechanisms for supporting high priority users in best effort, connection-oriented, and connectionless (i.e., Differentiated Services) environments. Task 4 will assess performance expectations across multiple types of networks on a full end-to-end path. These four tasks are as follows. -Task 1 - Endpoint Traffic Control for Best Effort Environments - Mechanisms will be developed for end users to control the performance they receive in best effort networks. This is accomplished using forwarding hosts which serve as intermediate destinations for traffic. The presence of multiple forwarding hosts gives end users choices of paths over which to test and send traffic. -Task 2 - Integrated Routing and Connection Admission Control - Connection admission control (CAC) is very useful in connection-oriented environments to limit the amount of traffic from low priority users. New CAC functions will be developed through simulation experiments that integrate efficiently with dynamic routing. -Task 3 - Priority Treatment in Diff-Serv Domains - In Differentiated Services domains, traffic is handled in an aggregated, connectionless manner. New traffic identification techniques, per domain behaviors, traffic engineering guidelines, and service level agreement templates will be developed to specifically address the requirements of high priority users in such environments. -Task 4 - End-to-end Priority Treatment - The ultimate research mission of this project is finally accomplished in Task 4, where priority users will be able to have their network activities supported end-to-end through new mechanisms to understand and influence performance in the different types of networks along a data path.