Application QoS management and session control in a heterogeneous home network using Inter-MAC layer support

This paper deals with the management of application QoS and session control in next generation home networks. These networks will be realized through the integration of heterogeneous communication technologies that will coexist and interoperate thanks to the introduction of a convergence layer, namely the Inter-MAC layer, as defined, for example, within the EU OMEGA project. Such layer is capable to efficiently guarantee a pre-defined level of Quality of Service to modern applications by means of an advanced management of the network resources. However, a unified mechanism to initiate the high level network application, especially in order to provide the signalling information containing user's desired level of QoS to the Inter-MAC layer and to orchestrate the setup procedure is actually missing. This document aims at proposing an innovative architectural and procedural definition of the home context considering the presence of two existing protocols, namely UPnP-QoS and SIP, and their coupling with Inter-MAC to provide a QoS enabled framework in the home context. Copyright © 2010 The authors.