MPLS: Managing the New Internet

Traffic requirements on the Internet have changed from reliability to timeliness of delivery as different types of applications are being deployed on it. This situation has prompted the industry and IETF (Internet Engineering Task Force) to develop new protocols and techniques to meet the challenges. One of the important protocols developed is MPLS (Multi Protocol Label Switching) that allows network operators to implement traffic engineering, an important aspect of network operation that was neglected earlier. In this paper, we discuss why traffic engineering is a necessary tool in next generation Internet and discuss several examples in which MPLS traffic engineering implementation results in enhanced network performance. We also look at the recent development of GMPLS (Generalized MPLS) that provides the control plane for lambda switching, waveband switching and fiber switching.

Effect of Context Transfer during Handoff on Flow Marking in a DiffServ Edge Router

When a mobile node moves and changes its connectivity from one RER to another, the new RER does not have the context unless it is transferred from the old RER. We conducted a study considering a diffserv domain where RERs run TSW scheme to meter the flows and mark the packets. In this paper we present the results of this study, which shows that by transferring the estimated average bandwidth during handoff marking of packets reach stability quickly. If the context is not transferred, then the marking at the new RER takes a while to reach stability. The instability period is proportional to the window size setting. The initialization of window size limits the context transfer latency

Abstract A Study of Profiled Handoff for Diffserv-Based Mobile Nodes

There is a growing interest in providing Internet services to the mobile nodes. When mobile nodes travel from one router's service area to another, the time-sensitive applications may see degradation in service. We investigate into the effects of handoff on service quality of mobile nodes. Several experiments are conducted using various packet metering and marking schemes with or without transferring profiles to the new router. Results indicate the relative instability period following handoff, loss of packets and delay encountered by packets in profiled or un-profiled handoffs, leading to determining suitable mix of metering and marking schemes with or without context transfer. Best effort service has been acceptable for traditional Internet applications like web, email and file transfer but it is inadequate for new classes of applications such as audio and video streaming. These new applications demand high data throughput and lo

On Shaping and Handling VBR traffic in a Diffserv domain

inherent burstiness of network traffic. Traffic includes unpredictable file or web page transfers as well as variable rate media streams. Traffic shaping means to smooth the traffic as a function of time. Shaping and congestion control is very important especially in cases where Variable Bit Rate (VBR) traffic streams are passing through the network

IoT-Based Ambulatory Vital Signs Data Transfer System

In emergencies or life-threatening situations, patients are generally shifted to hospitals in ambulances. The health conditions of on-board patients can become critical if they are not evaluated and treated in time. Chances of saving lives can increase significantly if patients’ vital signs inside an ambulance or on-site triage area are transferred to a hospital in real time. If the ambulances are linked to target hospitals, then the physicians in emergency rooms can monitor on-board patients’ vital signs and issue instructions to paramedics to stabilize patients’ medical conditions before they reach the assigned hospitals. Transferred vital signs data may also be archived for medical records. The Internet of things (IoT) is a paradigm which envisions Internet connectivity of virtually everything on the earth. In this paper, an IoT-based low-cost solution is proposed to monitor, archive, analyze, and tag the vital signs data of multiple patients and transfer them to the remote hospital in real time. This opens up a lot of possibilities in telemedicine and disaster management. As a proof of concept, the functionality of the proposed system was validated by developing a prototype model utilizing an IoT-enabled medical sensor board and a Linux server mimicking the remote hospital server. Results of actual data transmission obtained during experimentation are also provided. It is hoped that the proposed system can play a role in saving human lives in disaster situations