Enhancing Enterprise Network Performance: The Use of Quality of Service and Traffic Control

Quality of service and inter-domain traffic control are the current important issues in computer communication and IP telephony in Local Area Networks and Wide Area Networks. The objective of this research is to improve understanding of quality of service in a medium-sized computer network in a NSW public sector organisation. Following a review of the current literature, the study investigates a number of issues in relation to the successful design, implementation and operation of an appropriate quality of service framework. The research approaches include survey, case study and action research. Qualitative and quantitative data were gathered and analysed by combining these three methods. The instruments used for data gathering were semistructured
interviews with quality of service professionals, an electronic survey of
network user-perceived quality of service and a case study of a NSW public sector agency that has successfully designed, implemented and operated appropriate quality of service. The collected data is analysed and conclusions drawn based on the principles of Grounded Theory. An Activity Theory-based approach is then utilised for the development of tools and frameworks for a quality of service system.

The research, conducted over a period of three years, identified key issues for designing, implementing and operating quality of service management across NSW government agencies. The study contributes to the theory and practice, particularly for quality of service professionals (network architects, network engineers and network administrators). The main contributions of this research are:

1. investigating (to the best of our knowledge, for the first time) the perceived quality of service in NSW public sector organisations from a professional perspective;

2. introducing a quality of service model and framework that can be used by quality of service professionals for successful and effective design, implementation and operation of quality of service in an organisation;
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3. proposing a quality of service model with the introduction of novel tool – the Quality of Service Quotient (QoSQ), a mathematical formula that can be used to calculate an organisation’s quality of service posture and to choose a combination of quality of service parameters for a particular level of Quality of Service Quotient.