Traditional packet networks have been built to a principle that networks will operate on a best efforts packet delivery, with no guarantees basis. The best effort paradigm has been spectacularly successful in supporting non-real-time data applications (email, file transfer); this principle assigns the responsibility for detecting and correcting transmission problems to the customer equipment and higher-level protocols that require better network supports.
However the abovementioned principle does not provide the reliable quality of user experience in interactive voice telephony and other demanding real-time applications when network bandwidth limitations appreciably increase delay, jitter or packet loss. These applications work best across networks that can deliver “better than best-efforts” performance for various characteristics.
This Recommendation is intended as a guide to help regulators and network service providers meets QoS performance objectives.