How can Quality of Service (QoS) improve University Computer Networks?

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ACKNOWLEDGEMENT

I would take this opportunity to thank my research supervisor, family and friends for their support and guidance without which this research would not have been possible.

DECLARATION

I, [type your full first names and surname here], declare that the contents of this dissertation/thesis represent my own unaided work, and that the dissertation/thesis has not previously been submitted for academic examination towards any qualification. Furthermore, it represents my own opinions and not necessarily those of the University.

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TABLE OF CONTENTS

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTII

DECLARATIONIII

INTRODUCTION1

Shortage of Available IP Address Space1

Deficiencies in Routing Topology1

Issues with Support of Dynamic Host Configuration1

REVIEW OF LITERATURE3

Quality of Service3

QoS Mechanism3

Traditional University Focus on Challenges5

Computer Networks in Educational Settings5

New University Focus on Challenges6

Methodology6

Inclusion and Exclusion Criteria7

AIMS AND OBJECTIVES OF THE STUDY8

DISCUSSION9

Adopting QoS in Univeristy Computer Network9

IP QoS Architectures10

QoS Signaling Protocols10

IP QoS in Wireless Networks10

QoS Provisioning in Mobile Computing Environments10

Benefits and Uses of Quality of Service (QoS)11

CONCLUSION12

Conclusion12

Recommendations for Future Research12

REFERENCES14

INTRODUCTION

As in almost any organisation, the computer networks at university have certain weaknesses. While not being critical at the present time, the weaknesses may become problems in the future, unless they are eliminated. The following subsections analyse and describe these potential weaknesses.

Shortage of Available IP Address Space

It is conceived that IPv4 address space is being depleted, eventually relinquishing very few IPv4 addresses available. Consequently, is very unlikely that university will be able to obtain more IPv4 addresses in the future. The block of IPv4 addresses allocated to the university by IANA is limited to one class B subnet, which is 65,536 different addresses, and a few class C subnets that contain 255 addresses each. Certain portions of this address space cannot be used for assignment to network nodes, as they are being used to build the addressing hierarchy in the university (Huitema, 2000). According to the existing usage of the address pool, only a few 254-node subnets remain in reserve for future use. This does not leave much room for expansion, should it become necessary. Ultimately, when the university needs to build new networks or expand existing ones, no IP addresses will be available.

Deficiencies in Routing Topology

Administration and management of the routing topology may be improved. The university has many small networks, and the way those networks are topologically connected makes routing tables unnecessarily large. IPv4, by its nature, was not designed to take advantage of aggregation of IP addresses, although this was partially solved later with Classless Inter-Domain Routing (CIDR) (Fuller, 2001). University networks route traffic using the Routing Information Protocol. Granularity of subnet assignment is typically 254-node subnets (24-bit network portion and 8-bit host portion), which gives a maximum of 255 different subnets. While this is not a large amount of routing information for a router to process, it is still relatively complicated to dependably manage the addressing hierarchy, especially if the hierarchy is not well-structured. If university computer networks are to be expanded, the severity of this problem will increase, as the only solution to expansion is production of higher granularity networks with ...