The Competitive Internet Service Provider: Network Architecture, Interconnection, Traffic Engineering and Network Design

Due to the dramatic increase in competition over the last few years, it has become more and more important for Internet Service Providers (ISPs) to run an efficient business and offer an adequate Quality of Service. The Competitive Internet Service Provider is a comprehensive guide for those seeking to do just that.

Oliver Heckmann approaches the issue from a system point of view, looking not only at running a network, but also at connecting the network with peering and transit partners or planning the expansion of the network.

The Competitive Internet Service Provider:

• Offers an advanced reference on the topic, drawing on state-of-the art research in network technology.
• Clearly defines the criteria enabling ISPs to operate with the greatest efficiency and deliver adequate Quality of Service.
• Discusses the implications of the future multiservice Internet and multimedia applications such as Voice over IP, peer-to-peer, or network games.
• Delivers a comparative evaluation of different feasible Quality of Service approaches.
• Explores scientific methods such as queuing theory, network calculus, and optimization theory.
• Illustrates concepts throughout with mathematical models and simulations.

This invaluable reference will provide academic and industrial researchers in the field of network and communications technology, graduate students on telecommunications courses, as well as ISP managers, engineers and technicians, equipment manufacturers and consultants, with an understanding of the concepts and issues involved in running a successful ISP.

Oliver Heckmann is a researcher at the Multimedia Communications laboratory at the Darmstadt University of Technology. His area of expertise is ISPs (internet service providers). He has also worked on the M31 European Union Project (www.m3i.org) which was voted one of the most successful research projects in the EU’s Fifth Framework programme which dealt with the implementation of a QoS (Quality of Service) system using Intserv and Diffserv. He is currently working as a consultant for the M31 successor MMAPPSW (www.mmapps.org). Olivier is the technical manager of the LETSQoS (www.letsqos.de) research project that is funded by the German research network provider DFN.