IPv6 Essentials

6.3. Using QoS

The 6net project in Europe has conducted IPv6 QoS tests, the main focus of which was on IPv6 Differentiated Services. The document that describes these QoS tests is called "Report on IPv6 QoS Tests" and can be found at http://www.6net.org/publications/deliverables. The management summary states:

" . . . the performed QoS tests in 6NET backbone indicated that this IPv6 QoS model can be the basis for production services. The mechanisms under test operated efficiently, as the experimental results prove, without any performance degradation on backbone routers. The above observations remained true even in heavy network congestion and the final performance results that a user or an application experienced correspond to the QoS service's specification."

While new methods of implementing QoS in IPv6 are designed and tested, there is a plethora of real-world experience that proves that a DiffServ-based QoS implementation can provide adequate, scalable QoS features for enterprises and service providers. With the increased popularity of Voice over IP, an underlying QoS-enabled infrastructure is a must, and in most cases the model chosen is DiffServ. The 6net testing further validates this architecture as ready for implementation on IPv6 to support real-time applications such as voice and video. It has to be noted that when it comes to QoS deployment, technical aspects are not the only critical factors. Cooperation between operators in terms of strategy, policy, rules, and accounting is required and can become an impediment to QoS deployment.

The next chapter describes IPv6's flexibility in supporting different physical networks.