Meeting QOS guarantees by end-to-end QOS monitoring and adaptation

The design and implementation of the transport layer of a native ATM (asynchronous tranfer mode) protocol stack and its embedding into an overall architecture that provides end-to-end quality of service (QOS) is presented. Within this architecture, the typical transport functionalities are enlarged with QOS monitoring and adaptation mechanisms. A QOS-based API (application programming interface) is proposed that shields application programmers from the complexity of QOS management and control. Both unicast and multicast connections supporting interactive multimedia applications are considered.