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To survive in today’s competitive environment,

a service provider must continually evolve its

network and enable new revenue-generating ser-

vices faster and more cost effectively than the

competitors. Prior to the Internet, prior to recent

mobile services, prior to e-business, a change in

the telecommunication industry was seen as

more predictable. Business leaders knew to take

action – actions like reducing costs, launching

new products, upgrading the networks, and so

forth. Now providers are far less sure who their

competitors are, the value of their core strengths

and skills, and whether the business they have

done well in for many years will continue to

keep them profitable in the future.

Some may claim that a main cause for the uncer-

tainty is that recent development of applications

and service demands has been going on outside

the sphere of the service providers. In particular,

the Internet Engineering Task Force (IETF) has

received major contributions from some main

players and been guided by inputs from the

academic world. For sure this has resulted in a

plethora of applications and usage patterns, and

phenomenal traffic growth. However, as more

commercial concerns are entering the stage the

providers would regain more control, for exam-

ple by utilising the Traffic Engineeringsolu-

tions. This also advocates further work on stan-

dardisation, ensuring interoperable configura-

tions. Including procedures for managing multi-

ple service types and requirements, Internet

Protocol (IP) Traffic Engineering thus provides

mechanisms for optimal operation and manage-

ment of the IP-based network. Thereby, a

provider would also improve its chances in

the frenzied market.

Basically, one option could be simply to increase

the capacity of the network, like adding more

bandwidth to the links. A problem with this

argument is that capacity should then be added

wherever there is a problem, including the pro-

cessing capacity, and also in the access network,

on the servers, etc. Furthermore, and perhaps an

even heavier argument is that the possibility for

service differentiation would then still be rather

limited. Being able to offer a portfolio of differ-

ent services is recognised as a key enabler for

ensuring a provider’s profitability. Again,

Traffic Engineering is promoting a set of mecha-

nisms and procedures supporting a provider to

achieve such goals. This becomes more impor-

tant as the number of users and services grows.

The Internet Protocol (IP) has become a pivotal

component in communication between various

devices. It is rarely possible to make a single

protocol suffice the diverse needs of all applica-

tions and users. To a certain extent, however,

one may claim that the IP suite is addressing

such an objective. However, looking at the origi-

nal use of IP when it was designed, there are

many other applications of the protocol these

days; as more demanding services – like tele-

phony, video distribution and mission-critical

business applications – are gradually put onto

IP-based networks, additional functions must be

implemented in the networks and end-systems.

Hence, one is stretching the capabilities of IP

and additional mechanisms are necessary to

allow IP to hold on to a central position. Several

of these mechanisms are related to Traffic Engi-

neering, that is, means activated to ensure the

performance of the communication solutions.

This will also allow for more predictable

responses on service requests and swiftly

support of more advance services and users.

Quite a few phenomena influence the evolution

of IP-based networks, of which some interacting

factors are:

• Increased load and expansion; more efficient
  ways of handling the traffic is sought. Scala-
  bility challenges are commonly faced for this
  reason.


• New technologies; efficient ways of interact-
  ing with IP-based networks are looked for.
  An example of this is the relation between
  functions related to IP and an underlying
  optical layer.


• New user groups; additional requirements
  could be placed on the IP-based network.
  Thus, efficient ways of differentiation be-
  tween the groups are asked for, also accom-
  panied by appropriate charging solutions.


• New applications; innovative ways of utilising
  IP-based networks are steadily observed, e.g.
  related to electronic business, mobile services,
  and so forth.


• Increased dependency on the network; coming
  from the service providers themselves as com-
  mercial aspects, but also from their customers,
  of which several are basing their business on
  an operational network.

Guest Editorial

TERJE JENSEN

Terje Jensen

Telektronikk 2/3.

Front cover: The conflict
between market require-
ments and the service
provider’s resources

At low traffic pressure incom-
ing traffic equals traffic car-
ried. The artist Odd Andersen
indicates this situation by his
45 degrees black lines. How-
ever, every traffic machine –
be it switches, routers or the
whole network – has a capac-
ity limit at which the line
breaks into a horizontal posi-
tion. After that no more traffic
can be carried whatever the
pressure!

But the enormous increase

• and non-established nature


• of Internet traffic blasts
  through all aspects of capacity
  and quality constraints. The
  artist’s skyrocketing white
  lines indicate the unprece-
  dented demands to proper
  engineering of traffic ma-
  chines in the new market
  environments.

The artist’s generic message:
Matching capacity of all com-
ponents to uncertain Internet
traffic demands.

Ola Espvik, Editor in Chief