| 摘要 |
The present invention provides for a method and an apparatus that provides end-to-end (ETE) quality of service (QoS) for voice and other real time applications in a Softswitch-based network, and more particularly, in a packet data network or IP network that is capable of setting up and routing voice calls through Softswitch. At the core of the soft switch system is a call agent that sets up and routes the calls. A universal quality of service manager (UQM) is formed to work with the call agent and the gateways and routers of the IP network to provision, control, and guarantee the ETE QoS for voice and other real time applications. The UQM consists of the following five components: Bandwidth Manager, Policy Engine, Real Time Performance Monitor, Admission Controller, and Bandwidth Broker. With different levels of interactions between the above five components, the QoS for voice and other real time applications can be achieved hierarchically in three levels in the following. QoS provisioning: the Bandwidth Manager will work withe Policy Engine to statically manage the network priority and bandwidth to support QoS over IP networks. QoS controlling: the Admission Controller will work with Real Time Performance Monitor and the Call Agent and gateways to control the Qos over IP networks. ETE Qos Guarantee: the Bandwidth Broker will work with routers and gateways and call agent to do ETE dynamic bandwidth allocation and call admission control to guarantee the ETE Qos for voice and other real time applications. |
