An End-to-End Quality of Service Management Architecture for Wireless ATM Networks

Andreas Kassler, Peter Schulthess

Department of Distributed Systems, University of Ulm, Oberer Eselsberg, GER-89069 Ulm, Germany
Tel: ++49 731 502 4238, Fax: ++49 731 502 4142, eMail: [kassler,schulthess]@informatik.uni-ulm.de

Abstract
Wireless ATM networks will bridge the gap between mobility and broadband networking. 
The major challenge to this end consists of guaranteeing adequate end-to-end Quality 
of Service (QoS) in spite of the unreliable radio channel. In response to this we 
propose an integrated end-to-end QoS management architecture built around scalable 
error tolerant codecs, network filters and error modules to compensate for transmission 
errors and local QoS degradation. A broker concept combines local and distributed 
resource management and negotiation of QoS at different levels. By introducing QoS 
intervals both at application and transport level we cope with short term channel 
fluctuations on a wireless link. User definable degradation paths determine the 
behavior of the system in case the network QoS changes for a longer period of time. 
Mapping functions are provided to transform a QoS de-scription from the user perspective 
to QoS parameters and negotiation at the network level. Incorporating media filters into 
the overall broker architecture allows different media codecs to be used between the 
source and the sinks depending on the channel conditions and link utilization while 
obeying user defined end-to-end QoS strategies. We draft several protocols for the sender 
and receiver driven multicast scenario and show, how automatic filter propa-gation can be 
achieved under given end-to-end QoS con-straints.