How to say that you're special

Abstract

The IP header should be the ideal part of a packet that an end system could use to ask the network for special treatment. Recently, there has been renewed interest in using bits of this header-e.g. the ECN and the DSCP fields. But can we really use these bits? Or should we try to use other bits? We contribute to the body of work that tries to answer these questions by reporting on IPv4 measurements regarding the DSCP field and the Evil bit. Our findings show unexpected treatment to packets that set either of these fields and also confirm recent results on IP Options and ECN.

Exploring DSCP modification pathologies in mobile edge networks

“…A recent small-scale study [12] provided insight into end-toend path behaviour when sending DSCP-marked packets from edge networks (mostly wireless), with mixed results. Results were presented for 185 paths showing DSCP-related failure for 10 to 13% of packets with specific codepoints.…”