DiffServ based QoS architecture to support streaming applications in 3G mobile networks

The Internet is fast emerging as the ubiquitous transport network to provide multimedia services. A number of multimedia services, notably streaming applications, are growing in popularity. There is increasing need to support such applications for mobile users, who access the Internet over wireless networks. The mobile network environment is very different from the fixed network. The path characteristics change a lot as a mobile user moves from one cell to another and even during the movement within a cell itself. In this article, we describe a Differentiated Services (DiffServ) based 3G architecture that uses probing of channels to provide seamless QoS to streaming applications.