e used. When taking such an approach, which is based on EXP-inferred label-switched paths (E-LSPs), eight service classes can be sup- ported based on the DiffServ standard. QoS is a technologically wide and deep field involving several requirements, protocols, and pro- posed solutions. Unfortunately, it has political and economical ramifications that are not immediately apparent to the casual onlooker. When the prospect of implementing cross-border SLAs that require monitoring, data collection, accounting, and policing even beyond country borders in some cases is considered, the subject becomes sensitive. The differentiation of service providers based on the qual- ity of their network also stands to lose from such a prospect, because in a realm with one global com- mon QoS, one set of traffic classes would be applicable worldwide. It is natural that providers resist embracing it. On top of everything, the economics of network applications will dictate what is needed. Until massive futuristic consumer applications such as multiuser online gaming (with tight latency or jitter requirements), video on demand, or Internet support for wireless and mobile services become an absolute necessity, this may actually take some time. We will not divert our attention deeper into the QoS debate as it is a giant subject that is not pos- sible to cover here. We will therefore now return to our main topic: traffic managers. Hopefully, this discussion will explain how capable these chips must be in order to provide the network-processing platform upon which NEVs should be able to implement and manage QoS. 1. www.ietf.org/internet-drafts/draft-martini-l2circuit-trans-mpls-10.txt. Downloaded from Digital Engineering Library @ McGraw-Hill (www.digitalengineeringlibrary.com) Copyright © 2004 The McGraw-Hill Companies. All rights reserved. Any use is subject to the Terms of Use as given at the website. TRAFFIC MANAGERS TRAFFIC MANAGERS MAJOR TASKS AND ALGORITHMS Based on this initial discussion, the significant tasks for traffic managers