TCP/IP traffic over ATM network with ABR flow and congestion control

Most traffics over the existing ATM network are generated by applications running over TCP/IP protocol stack. In the near future, the success of ATM technology will depend largely on how well it supports the huge legacy of existing TCP/IP applications. In this thesis, we study and compare the performance of TCP/IP traffic running on different rate based ABR flow control algorithms such as EFCI, ERICA and FMMRA by extensive simulations. Infinite source-end traffic behavior is chosen to represent, FTP application running on TCP/IP. Background VBR traffic with different ON-OFF frequency is introduced to produce transient network states as well as congestion. The simulations produce many insights on issues such as: ABR queue length in congested ATM switch, source-end ACR (Allowed Cell Rate), link utilization at congestion point, efficient end to end TCP throughput, the TCP congestion control window size, and the TCP round trip time. Based on the simulation results, zero cell loss switch buffer requirement of the three algorithms are compared, and the fairness of ABR bandwidth allocation among TCP connections are analyzed. The interaction between the TCP layer and the ATM layer flow and congestion control mechanism is analyzed. Our simulation results show that in order to get a good TCP throughput and affordable switch buffer requirement, some kind of switch queue length monitoring and control mechanism is necessary in the ABR. congestion algorithm

Explicit congestion control algorithms for available bit rate services in asynchronous transfer mode networks

Congestion control of available bit rate (ABR) services in asynchronous transfer mode (ATM) networks has been the recent focus of the ATM Forum. The focus of this dissertation is to study the impact of queueing disciplines on ABR service congestion control, and to develop an explicit rate control algorithm. Two queueing disciplines, namely, First-In-First-Out (FIFO) and per-VC (virtual connection) queueing, are examined. Performance in terms of fairness, throughput, cell loss rate, buffer size and network utilization are benchmarked via extensive simulations. Implementation complexity analysis and trade-offs associated with each queueing implementation are addressed. Contrary to the common belief, our investigation demonstrates that per-VC queueing, which is costlier and more complex, does not necessarily provide any significant improvement over simple FIFO queueing. A new ATM switch algorithm is proposed to complement the ABR congestion control standard. The algorithm is designed to work with the rate-based congestion control framework recently recommended by the ATM Forum for ABR services. The algorithm\u27s primary merits are fast convergence, high throughput, high link utilization, and small buffer requirements. Mathematical analysis is done to show that the algorithm converges to the max-min fair allocation rates in finite time, and the convergence time is proportional to the distinct number of fair allocations and the round-trip delays in the network. At the steady state, the algorithm operates without causing any oscillations in rates. The algorithm does not require any parameter tuning, and proves to be very robust in a large ATM network. The impact of ATM switching and ATM layer congestion control on the performance of TCP/IP traffic is studied and the results are presented. The study shows that ATM layer congestion control improves the performance of TCP/IP traffic over ATM, and implementing the proposed switch algorithm drastically reduces the required switch buffer requirements. In order to validate claims, many benchmark ATM networks are simulated, and the performance of the switch is evaluated in terms of fairness, link utilization, response time, and buffer size requirements. In terms of performance and complexity, the algorithm proposed here offers many advantages over other proposed algorithms in the literature

Adaptive Multicast of Multi-Layered Video: Rate-Based and Credit-Based Approaches

Network architectures that can efficiently transport high quality, multicast video are rapidly becoming a basic requirement of emerging multimedia applications. The main problem complicating multicast video transport is variation in network bandwidth constraints. An attractive solution to this problem is to use an adaptive, multi-layered video encoding mechanism. In this paper, we consider two such mechanisms for the support of video multicast; one is a rate-based mechanism that relies on explicit rate congestion feedback from the network, and the other is a credit-based mechanism that relies on hop-by-hop congestion feedback. The responsiveness, bandwidth utilization, scalability and fairness of the two mechanisms are evaluated through simulations. Results suggest that while the two mechanisms exhibit performance trade-offs, both are capable of providing a high quality video service in the presence of varying bandwidth constraints.Comment: 11 page

Dynamic Feedback Flow Control Algorithms for Unicast and Multicast Available Bit Rate Service in Asynchronous Transfer Mode Networks

Asynchronous transfer mode (ATM) network technology has been adopted to integrate different kinds of traffic, like video, audio and data. It provides several service categories including constant bit rate (CBR), variable bit rate (VBR), available bit rate (ABR), and unspecified bit rate (UBR) service. In particular, the ABR service has been approved to use the bandwidth left by CBR and VBR services, which is ideal for data applications and can perform well for real-time applications with the appropriate implementation. Basically ABR servIce attempts to guarantee minimum cell rate, achieve fairness, and minimise cell loss by periodically indicating to sources the rate at which to send. Therefore, there is a critical need for an effective flow control mechanism to allocate network resources (buffers, bandwidth), and provide the negotiated quality of service. This thesis develops dynamic feedback flow control schemes in ATM networks, with primary focus on point-to-point (unicast) and point-tomUltipoint (multicast) ABR algorithms. Firstly, it surveys a number of point-to-point schemes proposed for supporting unicast ABR service. Some of these algorithms do not measure the actual ABR traffic load which leads to either overestimates or underestimates of the bandwidth allocation. Others do not monitor the activity of the sources and overlook the temporarily idle sources. The rest may be implemented with additional complexity. Secondly, the research shifts to the problems of point-to-multipoint algorithms by introducing the basic concept of multicasting ABR servIce and reviewing a group of consolidation schemes, where the compromise between low consolidation nOlse and fast transient response is the main issue. Thirdly, the design and implementation issues have been addressed together with the major drawbacks of the previous schemes and hence two algorithms have been proposed. A dynamic rate-based flow control (DRFC) scheme has been developed to support ABR service in unicast environment, while an adaptive feedback consolidation (AFC) algorithm has been designed for ABR multicasting. Finally, these schemes are extensively tested and compared with others from the literature using a wide range of network configurations and different types of traffic sources. The simulation results show that the DRFC algorithm allocates the available bandwidth fairly among the contending ABR sources, while achieving high link utilisation with reasonable growth of queues. The AFC scheme eliminates the consolidation noise with fast transient response as well as minimising the effect of non-responsive branches

Comparative and Evaluation of Explicit Rate Flow Control in ATM Networks

Current and feature application make use of different technologies as voice, data and video. Consequently network technologies needed to support them. This paper gives the technical overflow of different networking technologies such as the internet. ATM and different approaches to run input on top of an ATM network and access their potential to be used as an integrated services network. Novel high throughput reservation based switch architecture for ATM/WDM network [4] is presented. This scheme is connection free a highly flexible yielding a powerful solution for high speed broadband packet switching networks. Keywords: Fault Tolerance, Admission Control, ATM switches

Congestion control for transmission control protocol (TCP) over asynchronous transfer mode (ATM) networks

Performance of Transmission Control Protocol (TCP) connections in high-speed Asynchronous Transfer Model (ATM) networks is of great importance due to the widespread use of the TCP/IP protocol for data transfers and the increasing deployment of ATM networks. When TCP runs on top of ATM network, the TCP window based and ATM rate based congestion control mechanisms interact with each other. TCP performance may be degraded by the mismatch between the two mechanisms. We study the TCP performance over ATM networks with Unspecified Bit Rate (UBR) service and Available Bit Rate (ABR) service under various congestion control mechanisms by using simulation techniques, and propose a novel congestion control algorith, "Fair Intelligent Congestion Control", which significantly enhances the congestion control efficiency and improves the TCP performance over ATM networks