End to End IP QoS for voice, video and Xbox Live

Does anyone know if any VoIP providers or ISPs are supporting
end-to-end (between my home and the VoIP service provider) QoS
handling? If not, is anyone aware if its on their offerings roadmap?

Presumably the VoIP service provider then have their own mechanisms for
handling QoS to the end destination in order to give a clean phone
connection.

Also, am planning on getting Xbox Live so will need to somehow get QoS
priorities working between data, voice, video and Halo 2 games sessions
on my soon to arrive Thomson Speedtouch 716wl gadget using newly
provisioned UK Online 2MBPS service...any advice would be appreciated.

Cheers

Hiro

 

No.

See this : http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/technology/4700430.stm

 

Yes there are suppliers who offer this, But not at a domestic rate. basicly
they offer a VPN.

Some domestic ISPs are now starting to introduce Network management:
This is what my isp is doing, And quality has improved - was only in the
evenings now its " Introduction of traffic prioritisation to ensure
important web, email, gaming and broadband phone call (VoIP) traffic gets
priority at all times".

Ian

 

No, that's what the so-called 21st Century Networks are all about - IP
Telephony (with QoS) as opposed to Voice over IP (without QoS). It'll
be on all the major telco ISPs' roadmaps. BT is trialling something in
Cardiff, so if you're fortunate enough to live there then you may get
it sooner!

Yes, the packets are marked to indicate the priority with which the
network should handle them. Time-critical stuff (voice, video) gets a
high priority and non-time-critical stuff (data) gets a low priority.

What you're after is available today in Enterprise networks (IP
Telephony over the LAN) but is too costly to do over the current PSTN.

Nick

 

hmm... read article ....

seems like bureacrats trying to figure out how best to manage
technology they don't understand

prioritizing one traffic stream over another is inevitable and
desirable

it would allow differented products to be delivered over one single
broadband line (hopefully without having to pay two bills for line
rental and broadband service)

in any case, there is differentiated services already in the form of
contention ratios of 20:1 offered to business and 50:1 to residential
(approx numbers). i am in that wonderful space classified as SOHO so
could choose either. I've chosen price over QoS so have a residential
service

 

and who pray tell is your ISP?

 

Netservices - www.netservicesplc.com - they have an IP Telephony
service (as opposed to VoIP).

 

Thanks Nick
looks like netservicesplc is selling services to business customers as
you mention below and delivering end to end Qos traffic presumably via
VPNs as Ian has mentioned.

Ian
I was actually interested in your domestic line provider... is it
plusnet by any chance?

Believe 21cn is pegged for delivery in 2008 onwards...seems not bad if
they can deliver in 2 years but suspect it will get delayed

Cheers
Hiro

 

The Internet2 guys have spent some time doing research into QoS and the like
to ensure timely delivery of multimedia content, and the net conclusion was
that it's cheaper in the long run to just provide sufficient bandwidth in
the first place.

Bandwidth gets cheaper faster than technologies designed to conserve it. For
example, few ISPs bother with transparent proxy caches any more as they're
expensive and unreliable and international bandwidth is dirt cheap.

 

No its not! or are you answering a different question ???

Ian

 

You have been able to get QOS With priority fo voice for at least the last 3
years with certain suppliers.
At the moment most if not all VPNS are avalible with QOS, But at a cost.

Now some normal ISPs are starting to do network managment, I have definately
seen an improvement since its introduction by my ISP.

Ian

 

In answer to the question 'and who pray tell is your ISP', I can
confirm that the answer is Netservices (though I hope this is not what
you meant).

If the comment 'No its not!' refers to my statement that Netservices
has an IP Telephony service (as opposed to VoIP) then I beg to differ
as per:

http://www.voice4ip.com/our_network/fully-managed-carrier-class-network

But if you have first-hand experience and it doesn't offer the claimed
QoS then it would be interesting to know about.

I have no connection (as it were) with Netservices.

 

When you write 'suppliers' do you mean voice service providers or
equipment vendors?

If you mean voice service providers, then who are they and are their
services available to domestic users as well as businesses?

 

And what is the difference between "IP Telephony" and "VoIP", please?

 

Sounds alright in theory, but how will this work in practice? Surely if it's
down to the EU to tag their packets priority-wise, everyone will just mark
all their own traffic as 'high priority' and we'll be back to square one?

 

Not to mention customers always using transparent proxies as a stick to beat
their ISP with, ie any time Joe User can't connect to $SITE, ring ISP and
whinge about the 'transparent' proxy!

 

Except the question was for Ian, of course, as was obvious by the
thread, and references line. At a guess, I'd suspect Ian uses
Metronet, now owned by Plus.Net, BICBW Peter M.

 

"IP Telephony" is gaining currency as a description of a converged
network, including mobile, exploiting SIP features like presence
detection, follow me and seamless moves and changes within the VPN.

 

Originaly neither, It was the ISPs. Now Visps have started to use the ISPs
VPNs with QOS to suppy Voip services over.
As to being avalible to domestic users, not realy. Cost being prime. im sure
it will be one day though .

 

Nothing. VoIP is a generic term for the transport of voice packets over the
IP. Netservices and few others are using different terms. IP Telephony is
VoIP.

Have a look at http://www.voice4ip.com/what_is_voip.php to see how the QOS
is done and why it wont be avalible to domestic users.

Ian