Cooperative ISP Traffic Shaping Schemes in Broadband Shared Access Networks

TL;DR

This paper examines traditional token bucket filter traffic shaping in broadband networks, identifies its limitations, and proposes a cooperative scheme that enhances QoS/QoE by dynamically reallocating excess bandwidth among subscribers.

Contribution

It introduces a novel cooperative TBF mechanism that improves bandwidth utilization and user experience without violating service contract terms.

Findings

Enhanced QoS/QoE for subscribers.

More efficient bandwidth utilization.

Maintains service contract compliance.

Abstract

Traffic shaping is a mechanism used by Internet Service Providers (ISPs) to limit subscribers' traffic based on their service contracts. This paper investigates the current implementation of traffic shaping based on the token bucket filter (TBF), discusses its advantages and disadvantages, and proposes a cooperative TBF that can improve subscribers' quality of service (QoS)/quality of experience (QoE) without compromising business aspects of the service contract model by proportionally allocating excess bandwidth from inactive subscribers to active ones based on the long-term bandwidths per their service contracts.