Communications quality of service for ad-hoc mobile optical free-space networks

Abstract

Mobile Optical Free Space networks are an emerg- ing technology that will offer low-delay and high speed con- nectivity using air-borne and ground wireless laser terminals. The time-variable link capacity and dynamic topology make Quality of Service provisioning a difficult problem. We present an architecture for end-to-end statistical delay guarantees. We describe a delay model that uses the concept of virtual traffic to accommodate link capacity variations and transient outages. A mechanism for deploying dependable TCP services is imple- mented in this QoS-enabled network. The primary-backup TCP replication mechanism is supported by the routing infrastructure and allows transparent server replication. We illustrate perfor- mance improvements with simulation results.