EQuIP™—End-to-End QoS IP for Heterogeneous Networks

Heterogeneous networks are increasingly being utilized by the Air Force to provide the communication infrastructure needed to transport multimedia traffic and mission critical traffic. In order to effectively employ and manage these networks, new applications are required that allow network administrators to guarantee a minimum level of end-to-end quality of service for critical real-time multimedia traffic, even if the traffic is encrypted. EQuIP provides this capability.

EQuIP has numerous advantages over existing quality-of-service provisioning mechanisms. EQuIP

• is dynamic,
• functions across multiple domains,
• manages encrypted flows, and
• can guarantee that critical real-time flows are allocated the bandwidth that they need to function correctly.

EQuIP provides a low cost solution that can coexist with existing network infrastructures. It requires no additional network hardware. It accommodates encrypted flows and supports the protocols used to transmit multimedia information. EQuIP also accommodates IPSEC encrypted traffic and mobility management.

EQuIP provides real benefits to the war fighter such as:

• High QoS and pre-emptive capability over tactical networks
• Secure and efficient access to real-time information over tactical networks
• Real-time intelligence and emergency messages
• Maps, Video, Images, Web, Voice,
• Collaborative planning and response

The EQuIP architecture is pictured in the figure. Each domain is managed by an Intelligent Management Agent (IMA) (indicated by the red arrows in the figure). An IMA is aware of the resources that have been made available within its domain. Each IMA is responsible for allocating its available resources to EQuIP-managed information flows. The IMAs also implement the EQuIP mobility management functionality by keeping track of the current network tether point for each mobile node.

EQuIP Architecture

EQuIP QoS-aware gateways (indicated by the blue arrows in the figure) reside at the edge of the domains. EQuIP security and quality-of-service adaptation techniques are implemented within these gateways.

Both the IMA and gateway software run on existing network hardware. No additional, special purpose hardware is necessary. EQuIP can be easily incorporated within current military and commercial networks.

EQuIP development was funded by a USAF Phase II SBIR award. A TRL 5 prototype is available for demonstration.