Capacity Planning for Carrier-scale IP Networks

Abstract

With the growing popularity of Internet protocol (IP)-based networking among business users, the traditional IP ‘best-effort’ service is no longer acceptable. IP network operators need to deliver quality of service in a cost-effective way, and accurate capacity planning will be vital to ensure that the required performance is achieved. This paper highlights some of the challenges in this area and discusses two key activities that usually see a significant contribution from performance engineers — modelling and measurement analysis. Although the focus is on carrier IP networks, many of the issues apply equally to large corporate IP networks.