{\page
 \name={QBone Home Page} 
 \author={Ben Teitelbaum} 
 \keywords={QoS Internet2}
 \description={Home page of the Internet2 QBone project}
 {\qboneBody 
 {\h2 First Do No Harm} 
  The utter simplicity of the best-effort service model is one of the
  essential reasons for the success of the Internet.  It has allowed
  IP to be implemented over every conceivable link-layer and has made
  for extremely simple network management and inter-provider peering.
  Together with the inherent strengths of {\a
  \href=http://www.packetdesign.com/Documents/EETimes.pdf
  connectionless networking} and the {\a
  \href=http://web.mit.edu/Saltzer/www/publications/endtoend/endtoend.txt
  end-to-end design principle}, the best-effort service model has
  enabled a fast, dumb, cheap, and wildly scalable internet.

  The greatest challenge for internet QoS is to find lightweight
  traffic differentiation schemes that add value without adding
  significant additional operational complexity or endangering the
  principles that have made the Internet so successful.  

  {\strong The goal of the QBone is to test and deploy scalable QoS
  mechanisms in the {\al Internet2} environment.}

 {\h2 Premium Troubles} 
  After several years of experience attempting to deploy {\al QPS an
  interdomain, EF-based, virtual wire service} in the Internet2
  environment, the Internet2 QoS working group has concluded that any
  reservation-based form of QoS faces prohibitively difficult
  deployment obstacles, including:

  {\ul 
   {\li All-or-nothing network upgrades for providers (e.g. all
   access interfaces must police)}
   {\li Dramatic changes to network operations, peering arrangements,
   and business models}
   {\li Absence of suitable means to verify service (by users or
   providers)}
   }

  Moreover, within the Internet2 environment very few application
  performance problems can be traced to network congestion.  Instead,
  {\al E2E-PI end-to-end performance} is often hampered by faults on
  or near end-systems including: broken TCP stacks (e.g. inadequate
  socket buffering), Ethernet duplex mismatch, and crummy cabling
  (e. g. CAT3, shared media, or physical damage).

 {\h2 Non-Elevated Services}
  In this environment, only the simplest forms of interdomain QoS are
  deployable.  Currently, we are focusing on non-elevated flavors of
  best-effort service that deploy incrementally, with no need for
  policing, accounting, or significant change to operational practices.

  One example of a non-elevated service is the {\al QBSS QBone
  Scavenger Service (QBSS)}, which allows users, applications, and
  campus networks to mark traffic for potentially degraded treatment
  at congested downstream interfaces.  QBSS is designed for bulk TCPs
  that are currently run voluntarily during periods of low-utilization
  (e.g. large nightly transfers of scientific datasets, network
  backups, CDN content pushing).  It is also, however, gaining
  traction with Internet2 universities who want to downgrade the
  treatment of non-mission traffic, such as recreational file-sharing
  by students.

  In addition, we are looking at non-elevated services like {\al ABE}
  that could provide interactive applications with a low-latency
  best-effort service class.

  } }