Course 579: UMTS QoS Fundamentals

The course examines how the UMTS network supports end-to-end Quality of Service. The different functions and protocols supporting end-to-end QoS are described, with focus on the UMTS Bearer Service and the solutions in the packet switched domain.

Upon completion of this training, the participants will be able to successfully describe the UMTS QoS elements and having used them, know what to expect when the QoS features are employed in UMTS networks.

Upon completion of this course, the participant will:

• Understand what Quality of Service to expect from the UMTS network and what requirements this put on the different nodes in the UMTS architecture.
• Understand what different solutions that can be used to enable QoS in a packet switched network, and the benefits and limitations of each solution.
• Understand how end-to-end Quality of Service could be implemented using IP and ATM mechanisms.
• The implementation of QoS on each interface in the UMTS architecture is discussed, from the radio interface and ATM network to the IP solutions in the backbone and the External Bearer Service.
• The QoS solution of the IP Multimedia Subsystem (IMS) is described

UMTS Evolution

• UMTS architecture release -99 to release -5
• The notion of QoS mechanisms in GSM and GPRS

Quality of Service Overview

• Explains what and why of Quality of Service
• QoS framework
• The range of QoS mechanisms
• QoS models- Differentiated Services (DiffServ), Integrated Services (IntServ) and MPLS

General Requirements for QoS

• End User Requirements for QoS
• Characteristic of asymmetric nature between two directions
• QoS has to be provided end-to-end
• QoS parameters
• Efficient use of radio capacity.
• Independent evolution of Core and Access networks

QoS fundamentals and the need for IP QoS

• Differentiated Services QoS architecture and its enabling QoS functionality
• Integrated Services QoS model and its enabling QoS functions
• RSVP
• ATM, Frame Relay, and IEEE 802.1 QoS technologies and how they interwork with IP QoS
• MPLS and MPLS VPN QoS and how they interwork with IP QoS
• MPLS traffic engineering
• Routing policies, general IP QoS functions, and other miscellaneous QoS information

The UMTS end-to-end QoS architecture

• functions and protocols
• The UMTS Bearer Service
• Details of QoS Classes
• Conversational
• Streaming
• Interactive
• Background

UMTS network architecture - where is QoS relevant ?

• UMTS QoS architecture
• UMTS traffic class concept
• UMTS IMS Quality of Service (QoS)
• Service based Local Policy (SBLP)
• Policy Control Function (PCF)
• End to End QoS architecture
• QoS allocation scenarios
• QoS Tokens
• Architecture of UMTS IP Multimedia subsystem
• Components and functions (CSCF, HSS, MGCF, MGW etc.)
• Interfaces and Protocols
• Addressing

Technical Requirements for QoS

• Mapping between application requirements and UMTS services
• UMTS QoS architecture issues
• Overview of different Levels of QoS

What is ATM QoS?

• Traffic Parameters
• QoS in ATM
• Support in UMTS
• Available QoS classes and parameters
• Signaling flows

UMTS Bearer Service Attributes

• Traffic class ('conversational', 'streaming', 'interactive', 'background')
• Maximum bitrate (kbps)
• Guaranteed bitrate (kbps)
• Delivery order (y/n)
• Maximum SDU size (octets)
• SDU format information (bits)
• SDU error ratio
• Residual bit error ratio
• Delivery of erroneous SDUs (y/n/-)
• Transfer delay (ms)
• Traffic handling priority
• Allocation/Retention Priority
• Source statistics descriptor ('speech'/'unknown')

Simplification of UMTS QoS model

• End-to-end IP Bearer
• Application level QoS
• UMTS Bearer
• UMTS QoS
• Uu
• UTRAN
• Iu
• Core network
• External Network
• Different channel types
• ATM QoS
• DiffServ
• External QoS

mapping QoS to UMTS services

• Streaming services and IP multimedia system
• End-to-end QoS signaling scenarios
• End-to-end QoS provisioning scenarios
• QoS management functions
• QoS signaling
• RSVP
• DiffServ Code Points
• PDP context
• End-to-End QoS needs QoS provisioning
• Overprovisioning
• DiffServ
• IntServ
• MPLS/GMPLS
• Communication establishment delay
• Probability of blocking
• Effective bandwidth
• Measuring the Effective Bandwidth Usage
• Collection of traces
• Traces synchronization
• Traces shaping

DiffServ-based Traffic Handling Mechanisms for the UMTS Core Network

• UMTS QoS Architecture
• UMTS QoS classes to the DiffServ Code Points (DSCPs)
• The end-to-end QoS management
• Control plane QoS management functions
• Data plane QoS management functions
• The UMTS specifications define four QoS classes
• Diffserv/MPLS enabled IP-backbone
• Traffic Conditioning
• End-to-end delay for voice and video
• Packet loss for voice and video