Groups form to address QoS issues

Two consortiums meeting this week for the first time have different agendas, but a similar goal: finding a way to best implement IP quality of service (QoS) in high-bandwidth networks.

The groups - the QoS Alliance and the QoS Forum - will look to develop roadmaps for IP QoS on the LAN and across the Internet, respectively. As users deploy more bandwidth and time-sensitive applications, QoS, which includes reliability and predictability, is becoming more important. The two groups hope to drive new and existing QoS technologies into users' backbones faster.

Specifically, the QoS Alliance is meeting in Albuquerque, N.M., to hash out its plan to develop a Layer 2 QoS standard for LANs. The group, which is tied to the IEEE 802 project, consists of relatively unknown players: telecom switching vendor Fujitsu-Nexion; Escalate Networks, which makes Ethernet and DSL access equipment; and Vertex Communications, maker of wireless access devices.

Because existing flow control systems do not discern between different types of traffic, it's difficult to give time-sensitive traffic, such as voice, any type of priority, says Colin Mick, executive director of the QoS Alliance. Users need to have some sort of mechanism that will moderate traffic flows based on traffic type or IP address, he says. These mechanisms will be the basis of the QoS Alliance's Layer 2 QoS standard.

There will be some coordination and discussion between the IEEE's QoS Alliance and the Internet Engineering Task Force (IETF), Mick says. But any recommendations the group makes could be implemented in vendor products without the blessing of the IETF.

While the QoS Alliance is working on developing standards, the QoS Forum is not. The goal of the QoS Forum, which is meeting in San Jose, Calif., is to bring vendors together to talk about how to make more sense out of existing and pending IETF standards, says Martin Hall, chief technical officer at Stardust Forums and the QoS Forum organizer.

Some of the IETF specifications the group will be discussing include the Resource Reservation Protocol and Differentiated Services. The QoS Forum's list of supporting vendors includes industry heavy hitters such as IBM and Cisco.