Priority switching scheduler

We define a novel core network router scheduling architecture called priority switching scheduler (PSS), to carry and isolate time constrained and elastic traffic flows from best-effort traffic. To date, one possible solution has been to implement a core DiffServ network with standard fair queuing and scheduling mechanisms as proposed in the well-known "A Differentiated Services Code Point (DSCP) for Capacity-Admitted Traffic" from RFC5865. This architecture is one of the most selected solutions by internet service provider for access networks (e.g., customer-premises equipment) and deployed within several performance-enhancing proxies (PEPs) over satellite communications (SATCOM) architectures. In this study, we argue that the proposed standard implementation does not allow to efficiently quantify the reserved capacity for the AF class. By using a novel credit-based shaper mechanism called burst limiting shaper (BLS) to manage the AF class, we show that PSS can provide the same isolation for the time constrained EF class while better quantifying the part allocated to the AF class. PSS operates both when the output link capacity is fixed (e.g., wire links and terrestrial networks) or might vary due to system impairments or weather condition (e.g., wireless or satellite links). We demonstrate the capability of PSS through an emulated SATCOM scenario with variable capacity and show the AF output rate is less dependent on the EF traffic, which improves the quantification of the reserved capacity of AF, without impacting EF traffic.