Patent ID: 7698457

Claim:
A system for managing quality of service (QoS) for traffic flows generated by a plurality of hosts separated by one or more networks, wherein at least one of the networks is enabled with a set of traffic classes, said system comprising: a services manager; and a middleware module at least one host of the plurality of hosts, wherein said middleware module at the at least one host receives a QoS request for a traffic flow that the at least one host generates and conveys a QoS provisioning request to the services manager upon receiving the QoS request for the traffic flow; wherein said services manager receives the QoS provisioning request from said middleware module, obtains a DSCP (Differentiated Services Code Point) value for the traffic flow only if it is determined that the networks the traffic flow traverses can support the traffic flow, and if the DSCP value is obtained, conveys the obtained DSCP value for the traffic flow to said middleware module; wherein said middleware module uses the obtained DSCP value received from the services manager to mark a DSCP field of packets of the traffic flow; wherein the services manager, upon receiving the QoS provisioning request, determines the networks the traffic flow traverses, and as part of obtaining the DSCP value further determines, for each traffic class enabled network that the traffic flow traverses, if there is sufficient bandwidth in a traffic class to support the traffic flow; wherein the QoS request contains an identification of the traffic flow and wherein the middleware module conveys the identification to the services manager as part of the QoS provisioning request; wherein the services manager, upon receiving the QoS provisioning request, determines a default traffic flow characterization for the traffic flow based on the identification of the traffic flow, and uses the default traffic flow characterization to obtain the DSCP value by determining if the networks the traffic flow traverses can support the flow based on the default traffic flow characterization; and wherein if the services manager cannot obtain the DSCP value based on the determined default traffic flow characterization, the services manager determines an alternate traffic flow characterization for the traffic flow based on the identification of the traffic flow, and uses the determined alternate traffic flow characterization to obtain the DSCP value by determining if the networks the traffic flow traverses can support the flow based on the alternate traffic flow characterization.