[This is preliminary documentation and subject to change.]
WAN technology manipulates Layer 1, Layer 2, and to a certain extent, Layer 3 information, as it transmits data over the Telecommunications network. Since GQOS is an end-to-end solution that provides quality of service for data transferred across the network, there must be a means by which data passing through WAN interfaces can be associated with some sort of preferential or non-preferential treatment. Such a requirement necessitates the "mapping" of RSVP or other GQOS parameters to WAN technology QOS interfaces.
Layer 2, however, is where GQOS technology interacts most with the WAN's underlying signaling, since it is in Layer 2 where existing WAN technologies implement their own native QOS components. L2 signaling, in GQOS terms, takes GQOS information, such as parameters that are carried in RSVP messages to or through each network node between end devices, and maps that GQOS information to native WAN technology QOS interfaces.