Toward fully-shared access: Hybrid ISP traffic control architecture and service plans exploiting excess bandwidth in shared access networks

We report the current status of our work on the hybrid traffic control schemes and service plans exploiting excess bandwidth allocation for the implementation of fully-shared access networks. The current practice of shaping subscriber traffic using a token bucket filter results in a severe waste of network resources in shared access networks, because it cannot allocate excess bandwidth to active subscribers even when there is plenty of excess bandwidth. New service plans under a hybrid traffic control architecture exploit the excess bandwidth allocation enabled by new traffic control schemes we proposed before and thereby can provide benefits to both Internet service providers and their subscribers in terms of revenue and quality of service. A modular approach is suggested for the implementation of the hybrid traffic control architecture, which is based on IEEE 802.1Q stacked virtual local area networks and priority-based flow control, with preliminary simulation results demonstrating the advantage of the new hybrid service plans.