Some aspects of traffic control and performance evaluation of ATM networks

The emerging high-speed Asynchronous Transfer Mode (ATM) networks are expected to integrate through statistical multiplexing large numbers of traffic sources having a broad range of statistical characteristics and different Quality of Service (QOS) requirements. To achieve high utilisation of network resources while maintaining the QOS, efficient traffic management strategies have to be developed. This thesis considers the problem of traffic control for ATM networks. The thesis studies the application of neural networks to various ATM traffic control issues such as feedback congestion control, traffic characterization, bandwidth estimation, and Call Admission Control (CAC). A novel adaptive congestion control approach based on a neural network that uses reinforcement learning is developed. It is shown that the neural controller is very effective in providing general QOS control. A Finite Impulse Response (FIR) neural network is proposed to adaptively predict the traffic arrival process by learning the relationship between the past and future traffic variations. On the basis of this prediction, a feedback flow control scheme at input access nodes of the network is presented. Simulation results demonstrate significant performance improvement over conventional control mechanisms. In addition, an accurate yet computationally efficient approach to effective bandwidth estimation for multiplexed connections is investigated. In this method, a feed forward neural network is employed to model the nonlinear relationship between the effective bandwidth and the traffic situations and a QOS measure. Applications of this approach to admission control, bandwidth allocation and dynamic routing are also discussed. A detailed investigation has indicated that CAC schemes based on effective bandwidth approximation can be very conservative and prevent optimal use of network resources. A modified effective bandwidth CAC approach is therefore proposed to overcome the drawback of conventional methods. Considering statistical multiplexing between traffic sources, we directly calculate the effective bandwidth of the aggregate traffic which is modelled by a two-state Markov modulated Poisson process via matching four important statistics. We use the theory of large deviations to provide a unified description of effective bandwidths for various traffic sources and the associated ATM multiplexer queueing performance approximations, illustrating their strengths and limitations. In addition, a more accurate estimation method for ATM QOS parameters based on the Bahadur-Rao theorem is proposed, which is a refinement of the original effective bandwidth approximation and can lead to higher link utilisation

Multiplexing real time video services

Statistical Bit Rate (SBR) ATM capability is considered a good option for supporting Variable Bit Rate (VBR) services. However, its study is somewhat in lag compared with Deterministic Bit Rate (DBR) or Available Bit Rate (ABR) capabilities. The de nition of a general Call Acceptance Control (CAC) function is di cult to state for SBR. We present some results regarding the multiplexing of real time data streams, mainly from interactive video services, which are naturally VBR and therefore candidates to use the SBR capability. It is shown that image quality is improved by using SBR instead of DBR. The coder design does not become more complicated. In fact, it remains the same. We propose a statistical model for the tra c generated by such video sources. The delays introduced by a switch are studied following two approaches. Exact bounds are found for a worst case situation, indicating a very low statistical gain. However, simulations show that these bounds are too pessimistic since the worst case very rarely occurs. A very high mean load can be reached with acceptable delays. Indeed, the statistical gain is found to be signi cant. The CAC for this kind of service may be simple because, even assuming pessimistic gures, the burstiness for a real-time video data stream appears to be low.Eje: Procesamiento distribuido y paralelo. Tratamiento de señalesRed de Universidades con Carreras en Informática (RedUNCI

Theories and Models for Internet Quality of Service

We survey recent advances in theories and models for Internet Quality of Service (QoS). We start with the theory of network calculus, which lays the foundation for support of deterministic performance guarantees in networks, and illustrate its applications to integrated services, differentiated services, and streaming media playback delays. We also present mechanisms and architecture for scalable support of guaranteed services in the Internet, based on the concept of a stateless core. Methods for scalable control operations are also briefly discussed. We then turn our attention to statistical performance guarantees, and describe several new probabilistic results that can be used for a statistical dimensioning of differentiated services. Lastly, we review recent proposals and results in supporting performance guarantees in a best effort context. These include models for elastic throughput guarantees based on TCP performance modeling, techniques for some quality of service differentiation without access control, and methods that allow an application to control the performance it receives, in the absence of network support

Advances in Internet Quality of Service

We describe recent advances in theories and architecture that support performance guarantees needed for quality of service networks. We start with deterministic computations and give applications to integrated services, differentiated services, and playback delays. We review the methods used for obtaining a scalable integrated services support, based on the concept of a stateless core. New probabilistic results that can be used for a statistical dimensioning of differentiated services are explained; some are based on classical queuing theory, while others capitalize on the deterministic results. Then we discuss performance guarantees in a best effort context; we review: methods to provide some quality of service in a pure best effort environment; methods to provide some quality of service differentiation without access control, and methods that allow an application to control the performance it receives, in the absence of network support

Dynamic bandwidth allocation in ATM networks

Includes bibliographical references.This thesis investigates bandwidth allocation methodologies to transport new emerging bursty traffic types in ATM networks. However, existing ATM traffic management solutions are not readily able to handle the inevitable problem of congestion as result of the bursty traffic from the new emerging services. This research basically addresses bandwidth allocation issues for bursty traffic by proposing and exploring the concept of dynamic bandwidth allocation and comparing it to the traditional static bandwidth allocation schemes

From burstiness characterisation to traffic control strategy : a unified approach to integrated broadbank networks

The major challenge in the design of an integrated network is the integration and support of a wide variety of applications. To provide the requested performance guarantees, a traffic control strategy has to allocate network resources according to the characteristics of input traffic. Specifically, the definition of traffic characterisation is significant in network conception. In this thesis, a traffic stream is characterised based on a virtual queue principle. This approach provides the necessary link between network resources allocation and traffic control. It is difficult to guarantee performance without prior knowledge of the worst behaviour in statistical multiplexing. Accordingly, we investigate the worst case scenarios in a statistical multiplexer. We evaluate the upper bounds on the probabilities of buffer overflow in a multiplexer, and data loss of an input stream. It is found that in networks without traffic control, simply controlling the utilisation of a multiplexer does not improve the ability to guarantee performance. Instead, the availability of buffer capacity and the degree of correlation among the input traffic dominate the effect on the performance of loss. The leaky bucket mechanism has been proposed to prevent ATM networks from performance degradation due to congestion. We study the leaky bucket mechanism as a regulation element that protects an input stream. We evaluate the optimal parameter settings and analyse the worst case performance. To investigate its effectiveness, we analyse the delay performance of a leaky bucket regulated multiplexer. Numerical results show that the leaky bucket mechanism can provide well-behaved traffic with guaranteed delay bound in the presence of misbehaving traffic. Using the leaky bucket mechanism, a general strategy based on burstiness characterisation, called the LB-Dynamic policy, is developed for packet scheduling. This traffic control strategy is closely related to the allocation of both bandwidth and buffer in each switching node. In addition, the LB-Dynamic policy monitors the allocated network resources and guarantees the network performance of each established connection, irrespective of the traffic intensity and arrival patterns of incoming packets. Simulation studies demonstrate that the LB-Dynamic policy is able to provide the requested service quality for heterogeneous traffic in integrated broadband networks

Statistical multiplexing and connection admission control in ATM networks

Asynchronous Transfer Mode (ATM) technology is widely employed for the transport of network traffic, and has the potential to be the base technology for the next generation of global communications. Connection Admission Control (CAC) is the effective traffic control mechanism which is necessary in ATM networks in order to avoid possible congestion at each network node and to achieve the Quality-of-Service (QoS) requested by each connection. CAC determines whether or not the network should accept a new connection. A new connection will only be accepted if the network has sufficient resources to meet its QoS requirements without affecting the QoS commitments already made by the network for existing connections. The design of a high-performance CAC is based on an in-depth understanding of the statistical characteristics of the traffic sources

A Flexible Traffic Shaper for High Speed Networks: Design and Comparative Study with Leaky Bucket

Maximizing bandwidth utilization and providing performance guarantees, in the context of multimedia networking, are two incompatible goals. Heterogeneity of the multimedia sources calls for effective traffic control schemes to satisfy their diverse Quality of Service (QoS) requiremnets. These include admission control at connection set up, traffic control at the source ends and efficient scheduling schemes at the switches. The emphasis in this paper is on traffic control at the source end. Most multimedia sources are bursty in nature. Traffic shapers have been mainly studied hitherto from the point of view of their effectiveness in smoothing the burstiness. Leaky Bucket (LB) scheme, to cite an example, is a mean rate policer smoothing at the token generation rate. Studies on bursty sources show that burstiness promotes statistical multiplexing at the cost of possible congestion. Smoothing, on the other hand, helps in providing guarantees at the cost of utilization. Thus need for a flexible scheme which can provide a reasonable compromise between utilization and performance is imminent. Recent studies [10, 12] have also questioned the suitability of LB for policing real-time traffic due to the excessive delays. We argue for a policy which is less stringenton short term burstiness than the LB. We propose a new traffic shaper which can adjust the burstiness of the input traffic to obtain reasonable bandwidth utilization while maintaining statistical service guarantees. The performance study is conducted in two parts. In the first part, we study the effect of varying the shaper parameters on the input characteristics. In the second part, we dimension our scheme and a LB equivalently and compare the mean and peak rate policing behavior with delay and loss as the performance parameters. Adopting a less stringent attitude towards short term burstiness is shown to result in considerable advantage while policing real-time traffic. Future research possibilities in this topic are explored. (Also cross-referenced as UMIACS-TR-95-71

Dynamic threshold-based algorithms for communication networks

Ankara : The Department of Electrical and Electronics Engineering and the Institute of Engineering and Sciences of Bilkent University, 2009.Thesis (Master's) -- Bilkent University, 2009.Includes bibliographical references leaves 68-72.A need to use dynamic thresholds arises in various communication networking scenarios under varying traffic conditions. In this thesis, we propose novel dynamic threshold-based algorithms for two different networking problems, namely the problem of burst assembly in Optical Burst Switching (OBS) networks and of bandwidth reservation in connection-oriented networks. Regarding the first problem, we present dynamic threshold-based burst assembly algorithms that attempt to minimize the average burst assembly delay due to burstification process while taking the burst rate constraints into consideration. Using synthetic and real traffic traces, we show that the proposed algorithms perform significantly better than the conventional timer-based schemes. In the second problem, we propose a model-free adaptive hysteresis algorithm for dynamic bandwidth reservation in a connection-oriented network subject to update frequency constraints. The simulation results in various traffic scenarios show that the proposed technique considerably outperforms the existing schemes without requiring any prior traffic information.Toksöz, Mehmet AltanM.S

On the effective bandwidth for resource management in ATM networks

Ankara : Department of Electrical and Electronics Engineering and the Institute of Engineering and Sciences of Bilkent University, 1997.Thesis (Master's) -- Bilkent University, 1997.Includes bibliographical references leaves 81-84.Chahed, TijaniM.S