For mission-critical voice, data, and video traffic, yesterday's "best effort" Internet delivery is no longer enough. The solution: Quality of Service (QOS) -- a family of techniques that enable service providers and companies to guarantee specific levels of wide area network performance. In this book, leading telecommunications consultant Uyless Black explains all aspects of WAN quality of service techniques, giving communications professionals all the information they need to implement them, and deliver services based on them.

Black begins with a general overview of QOS concepts, demonstrating why integrated voice, data, and video traffic can only be managed efficiently when QOS is used. He demonstrates how QOS can be implemented in IP, ATM and frame relay environments; introduces QOS capabilities built into IPv4 and IPv6; and explains both the Resource Reservation Protocol (RSVP) and Real-Time Transport Protocol (RTP). The book includes a full chapter on new Layer 4 QOS-capable devices that can prioritize data traffic using transport-layer criteria. Readers will also find detailed coverage of using QOS for delivery of integrated services; and of Multiprotocol Label Switching (MPLS), the new Internet standard that promises to seamlessly integrate routing control, while increasing network scalability and reducing complexity.