Experiences with a flexible QoS capable residential Gateway within a multiservice Framework

Abstract

It is sometimes believed that a “broadband access” network, providing ample transmission capacity to residential environments, is enough so as to allow a flawless delivery of advanced services. However, the provisioning of a combination of multiple services with guaranteed quality up to the end-user terminal requires a carefully designed architecture incorporating the appropriated Quality of Service (QoS) concepts throughout the data path. And this path includes the Residential Gateway (RGW) as the last hop towards the home network. This paper describes the architecture of a RGW prototype designed and implemented within the framework of the European IST research project MUSE. The paper also addresses the different experiences performed with the prototype. Special emphasis will be made on the QoS capabilities of the RGW as well as on authentication and auto-configuration features.