Adaptive quality of service for packet loss reduction using OpenFlow meters

Quality of Service (QoS) is a mechanism used in computer networks to prioritize, classify, and treat packets differently based on certain criteria. This helps the switching devices to schedule and reorder packets if there is congestion in the network. Edge routers experience high traffic congestion as a result of traffic aggregation from the internal network devices. A router can have multiple QoS classes configured, and each class could experience traffic at various rates. However, when a QoS class is underperforming or needs more bandwidth, some bandwidth can be borrowed or leased out to another QoS class to ensure the link is utilized to maximum capacity and the highest throughput is achieved. This article proposes a bandwidth allocation and distribution algorithm that purely uses the flow statistics from the OpenFlow switches to allocate bandwidth to different QoS classes optimally based on their current requirement. The algorithm does not guarantee in advance that the packet loss will be minimized but does guarantee the initial minimum bandwidth allocation. It adjusts the flows' rates with the aim to increase their current throughput. The algorithm uses the Software Defined Networking (SDN) controller's flow monitoring component to query the flow statistics from the switch to first approximate the traffic flow rate and then calculate the optimal bandwidth values to assign to each QoS class. The proposed algorithms will be applied to certain switches in the path with the assumption that all the switches are OpenFlow compatible. The algorithm's performance was compared with the Adaptive Quality of Service (AQoS) algorithm over various traffic scenarios. The results show that the proposed algorithm achieves an average of 9% performance gain compared to the AQoS algorithm.