A framework for network reliability through QoS mapping between lower and upper layers

Abstract

The majority of today's infrastructures are vulnerable to various disruptions that affect their essential services. Consequently, different research programs have been aiming at lowering such disruptions. In fact, the problem of designing systems with dependability, reliability, or security characteristics has long been acknowledged as an area for further research, and has received a substantial amount of attentions in the last few years by many different organizations and institutes. However, there are various inconsistent concepts and terminologies that are commonly used to describe the performance of systems (e.g., high-confidence, survivable, trustworthy, and robust). Some of these concepts are quantitative while others are qualitative, and it is a challenge to analyze and evaluate the performance of systems subjectively. Therefore, in this research, we are relating the various subjective concepts to a simple measurable concept which is the reliability concept, and based on analyzing this concept in the high-speed IP-based network environment, the reliability concept is further expressed by the Quality of Service (QoS). A QoS mapping between the lower and upper layers loss rate performance parameter has been developed. Further, the impact of the lower layer packets loss on the upper layer frames quality has been investigated. This mapping allows better understanding of the technical network parameters from the application's perspective of the service level agreement (SLA) and it balances the reservations of the right resources.