A PERSPECTIVE ON THE ANALYTICAL PERFORMANCE EVALUATION OF MULTILAYERED COMMUNICATION PROTOCOL ARCHITECTURES

The analytical performance evaluation of communication protocols has been an area of intensive research but most studies have focused on the protocols of a single layer. Recently, there has been a growing interest in evaluating quantitatively the effects of multiple layers of protocol and the associated processing overheads. In this paper, we consider the various approaches that have been taken and expose their relative merits and limitations. We first survey performance models that are made up of two or three layers and then concentrate on those methodologies that are orientated towards a full seven-layer architecture. The latter methodologies include a hierarchial decomposition and aggregation method, a method of analysis based on formal specifications, and an iterative decomposition method based explicitly on a generic queueing network model. The problem of analyzing multilayered systems remains a difficult one and one of significant importance. From the perspective of end-user entities, the end-to-end performance of a communication architecture is ultimately the measure of practical importance.