The performance architecture is the newest of the component architectures and is rapidly evolving to include many new mechanisms to achieve network performance. Furthermore, as you will see in this chapter, the success of this architecture is highly dependent on the other component architectures.

8.1 Objectives

In this chapter, you will learn about what performance means in a network, including descriptions of mechanisms to achieve performance, how to determine the relationships both between these mechanisms and between performance and the other architectural components, and development of the performance architecture. We will also develop goals for performance that will guide the development of this architecture.

8.2 Preparation

To be able to understand and apply the concepts in this chapter, you should be familiar with the basic concepts and mechanisms of performance. The basic concepts of performance were discussed in Chapters 1, 2, and 3, and the coupling of performance to traffic flows in Chapter 4 of this book. In addition, concepts of network architecture were presented in Chapter 5.

If you need additional information on network performance and performance mechanisms, some recommended sources include:

• Internet QoS: Architectures and Mechanisms for Quality of Service, by Zheng Wang, Morgan Kaufmann Publishers, March...