| Quality of Service (QoS) is essential for smooth operations for real-time multimedia applications. Thus, a scalable QoS network architecture, known as Differentiated Services, is proposed. However, Differentiated Services cannot guarantee end-to-end QoS demanded by multimedia applications. To address the issue, this thesis presents a framework, Tariff-based Differentiated Services (T-DS) that provides the following functionalities: Firstly, T-DS allows applications to negotiate on network resource reservation with the networks. Secondly, T-DS enables the network authority to request running applications to adapt their sending rates for the sake of improving network efficiency. Thirdly, T-DS provides a mechanism for applications to perform real-time re-negotiation on existing reservation. Finally, T-DS maximizes users' benefits by taking monetary consideration, and uses pricing as a means of network congestion control. A new protocol, known as Service Bidding Protocol, is proposed for T-DS's operations. A prototype based upon T-DS has been built, and its functionalities and efficiency are demonstrated. |
