DYNAMIC BANDWIDTH ALLOCATION AND ACCESS-CONTROL OF VIRTUAL PATHS IN ATM BROAD-BAND NETWORKS

Asynchronous Transfer Mode (ATM) Broadband Networks are expected to carry a wide spectrum of traffic with diverse correlation and burstiness characteristics. It is essential to design strategies that can efficiently allocate the network resources such that to avoid possible congestion problems. In this paper, we propose and analyze a dynamic bandwidth allocation and control scheme based upon the virtual path principle. The scheme exploits the statistical multiplexing gain in allocating the bandwidth to each virtual path. The bandwidth allocated depends upon the traffic characteristics and the required cell loss rate as declared by the Quality Of Service (QOS) of each type of traffic. To dynamically control the allocated path-bandwidth, a Bandwidth Control Period (BCP) rule, is proposed to control the scheduling of the different types of traffic. Traffic with similar characteristics are supported on the same virtual path. It is shown that with proper choice of the BCP, a path-bandwidth can be allocated such that to guarantee the traffic required QOS in terms of its cell loss rate and attainable quality. Further more, it is shown that access flow control is essential to police the traffic and enhance the statistical multiplexing gain per virtual path.