Real-time services for router nets

The Internet Engineering Task Force is developing a suite of standards called the integrated services architecture (ISA), which permits networks to provide quality of service transport over IP nets. ISA can be implemented through advanced congestion management and queuing algorithms that limit delay, jitter, and bandwidth consumption in the network. It also includes protocols, such as the Resource Reservation Protocol, that make it possible to reserve bandwidth for particular applications. Together, these capabilities let IP networks handle real-time applications such as voice and video. Implementing the ISA requires making software, and possibly firmware, upgrades to switches and routers.