DiffServ in the Internet: Does it Work?

The DiffServ Code Point (DSCP) is a 6-bit field in the header of IPv4 and IPv6 packets. Its purpose is to specify information on how to handle a packet during routing, for example to minimise latency for real-time traffic like video conferencing. But does «The Internet» really make use of this field? Using the NorNet Core infrastructure, we made an interesting analysis on DSCP support in the Internet. See the results in our new article here:

Barik, Runa; Welzl, Michael; Elmokashfi, Ahmed Mustafa; Dreibholz, Thomas; Islam, Safiqul and Gjessing, Stein: «On the Utility of Unregulated IP DiffServ Code Point (DSCP) Usage by End Systems» (PDF, 1326 KiB), in Performance Evaluation, vol. 135, Elsevier, DOI 10.1016/j.peva.2019.102036, ISSN 0166-5316, August 26, 2019, [BibTeX, XML].