The TeraPaths Testbed: Exploring End-to-End Network QoS

The TeraPaths project at Brookhaven National Laboratory (BNL) investigates the combination of DiffServ-based LAN QoS with WAN MPLS tunnels in creating end-to-end (host-to-host) virtual paths with bandwidth guarantees. These virtual paths prioritize, protect, and throttle network flows in accordance with site agreements and user requests, and prevent the disruptive effects that conventional network flows can cause in one another. This paper focuses on the TeraPaths testbed, a collection of end-site subnets connected through high-performance WANs, serving the research and software development needs of the TeraPaths project. The testbed is rapidly evolving towards a multiple end-site infrastructure, dedicated to QoS networking research, and it offers unique opportunities for experimentation with minimal or no impact on regular, production networking operations.