Dynamic reservation TDMA protocol for wireless ATM networks

A dynamic reservation time division multiple access (DR-TDMA) control protocol that extends the capabilities of asynchronous transfer mode (ATM) networks over the wireless channel is proposed in this paper. DR-TDMA combines the advantages of distributed access and centralized control for transporting constant bit rate (CBR), variable bit rate (VBR), and available bit rate (ABR) traffic efficiently over a wireless channel. The contention slots access for reservation requests is governed by the framed pseudo-Bayesian priority (FPBP) Aloha protocol that provides different access priorities to the control packets in order to improve the quality-of-service (QoS) offered to time sensitive connections. DR-TDMA also features a novel integrated resource allocation algorithm that efficiently schedules terminals' reserved access to the wireless ATM channel by considering their requested bandwidth and QoS. Integration of CBR, voice, VBR, data, and control traffic over the wireless ATM channel using the proposed DR-TDMA protocol is considered in this paper. Simulation results are presented to show that the protocol respects the required QoS of each traffic category while providing a highly efficient utilization of approximately 96% for the wireless ATM channel     

VBR背景业务下的ABR拥塞特性

ＡＢＲ业务的拥塞控制方案是当前ＡＴＭ研究方面的热点,本文首先分析了存在ＶＢＲ背景业务时,ＡＢＲ拥塞控制方案的动态特性,然后将此分析模型用于研究明确速率反馈交换机的排队性能,并研究了ＴＣＰｏｖｅｒＡＢＲ的拥塞特性。     

一种无线ATM网络的MAC协议

主要研究了无线ATM网络对MAC的需求，并介绍了适用于无线ATM的一种新的MAC方案。该协议支持不同类型信息传输，比如恒定比特率（CBR），可变比特率（VBR），可用比特率（ABR），未指定比特率（UBR）。另外此协议还提供了对宽带ATM主干网的无缝连接。同时也支持与ATM相关的QoS级别。对于该协议关注的各种情况的主要原理进行了讨论。     

A multiple access scheme for multimedia traffic in wireless ATM

This paper proposes a multiple access scheme for the forthcoming wireless ATM (Asynchronous Transfer Mode) system. Such ATM compatible wireless systems are motivated by the rapidly increasing demand for wireless extensions to broadband networks, which are expected to support mixed broadband services including Constant Bit Rate (CBR), Variable Bit Rate (VBR), and Available Bit Rate (ABR) traffic. Since these different traffics have very different performance requirements, the multiple access scheme design is very challenging. In this paper, we propose a multiple access scheme called Dynamic Time Division Multiple Access with Piggybacked Reservation (DTDMA/PR), attempting to achieve higher statistical multiplexing efficiency in the mixed VBR/CBR/ABR traffic scenario. The basic idea is to exploit two levels of reservation. The first level deals with the isochronous nature of CBR and VBR traffic and the bursty nature of ABR traffic by using the ALOHA reservation procedure. The second level exploits the piggybacked reservation approach to cope with the dynamic feature of VBR traffic in order to increase the multiplexing efficiency. An analytical model is also developed in this paper and verified by simulation. Numerical examples are given to gain some insight into the protocol itself.     

The available bit rate service for data in ATM networks

The authors describe the purpose of the available bit rate (ABR) service in the context of other ATM services and review the agreements on the traffic control mechanism. They describe the recent progress towards standardization of the new service. The general nature of the ABR service is described in comparison with constant bit rate (CBR) and variable bit rate (VBR) services     

Picture quality optimization in ABR video services

In transmission of bursty traffic such as video and data, a network with a fixed capacity may have some unused bandwidth. The available bit-rate (ABR) scheme in ATM networks can make use of this spare channel capacity as a lower priority service. ABR has been developed initially for delay-tolerant services such as data. In this paper we demonstrate how with the help of a video transcoder delay-sensitive services such as video may be transmitted over ABR networks. The transcoder further compresses the video bit stream according to the rates dictated by the network with minimum degradation to the picture quality. We have optimised the video quality by combining the classical minimum cell rate (MCR) with the subjectively acceptable minimum quality (SAMQ). The performance of two different coding formats for ABR sources, namely the constant bit-rate (CBR) and variable bit-rate (VBR) video input to the transcoder are compared. We also present techniques for further reduction of congestion at the multiplexing switches to improve video quality and report on the impact of the forward and backward link delays on the ABR performance with a video transcoder.     

Evaluation of congestion control protocols for ABR traffic over ATM networks

Congestion control is very important for effective and stable operation of ATM (Asynchronous Transfer Mode) networks. Owing to the bursty and unpredictable characteristic of data network traffic, its congestion control is particularly a challenge for network researchers and designers. The ATM Forum has recently adopted rate‐based congestion control for ABR (Available Bit‐Rate) traffic which is the service class defined for data network applications. However, there is a number of congestion control schemes prevalent. ATM Forum has decided not to specify switch behaviour for ABR traffic; this has further introduced additional ambiguity. Consequently, an evaluation and comparison of the existing protocols would provide valuable guidance for network designers and engineers; it would also give insight for researchers to explore the essence of different congestion control schemes. In the first part of this paper, we investigate the effectiveness of ABR congestion control in the presence of bursty source traffic and the relationship between the burst time scale and the ABR control time scale. Two ABR congestion control schemes, the ABR Explicit Forward Congestion Indication (EFCI) and ABR Congestion Indication (CI) schemes, are compared with Unspecified Bit Rate (UBR) transport which makes no effort to control congestion. Traffic sources of various burst lengths of 100, 1000, 10000, and an equal mix of 100 and 10000 ATM cells are used in simulations. It is found that ABR congestion control schemes effectively control low frequency, medium to long‐term traffic load transients. This is further supported by the result of integrating TCP over ATM congestion control schemes included in the paper. ABR control schemes do not control high frequency, short‐term load transients well, but ABR control is not necessary in such cases since short‐term transients do not require a large amount of buffering. In the second part of this paper, we evaluate and compare six rate‐based congestion control protocols including Scheme I: EFCI, Scheme II: EFCI with separate RM queues, Scheme III: CI, Scheme IV: CI with separate RM queues, Scheme V: the CAPC2 ER (Explicit Rate), and Scheme VI: the EFCI with utilization‐based congestion indication. Each scheme is simulated and compared in the LAN, WAN, and GFC (General Fairness Configuration) environments specified by the ATM Forum. Effects of varying VC (Virtual Circuits) number and changing endsystem–switch distance has been investigated. Their fairness is also compared using the GFC configuration. We have found that ER control scheme performs significantly better than the other five binary control schemes by its faster response to congestion, smoother regulation of bit‐rates, lower queueing delay, shorter buffer queue length, and fairness. Among the other five schemes, the CI scheme performs better than the EFCI scheme. Providing separate RM queues has significantly improved the EFCI scheme in the WAN environment, but has little effect on the CI scheme. Link utilization‐based congestion detection has suffered from either low utilization or an excess cell loss which is unacceptable in most data applications. Copyright © 2000 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Effective control of traffic flow in ATM networks using fuzzyexplicit rate marking (FERM)

We describe the fuzzy explicit fate marking (FERM) traffic flow control algorithm for a class of best effort service, known as available bit rate (ABR), proposed by the ATM Forum. FERM is an explicit rate marking scheme in which an explicit rate is calculated at the asynchronous transfer mode (ATM) switch and sent back to the ABR traffic sources encapsulated within resource management (RM) cells. The flow rate is calculated by the fuzzy congestion control (FCC) module by monitoring the average ABR queue length and its rate of change, then by using a set of linguistic rules. We use simulation to compare the steady-state and transient performance of FERM with EPRCA (a current favourite by the ATM Forum) in the presence of high priority variable bit rate (VBR) video and constant bit rate (CBR) in both a local-area network (LAN) and a wide-area network (WAN) environment. Our experiments show that FERM exhibits a robust behavior, even under extreme network loading conditions, and ensures fair share of the bandwidth for all virtual channels (VCs) regardless of the number of hops they traverse. Additionally, FERM controls congestion substantially better than EPRCA, offers faster transient response, leads to lower end-to-end delay and better network utilization     

Efficient Transmission of MPEG-2 Coded Video Traffic over ATM Networks

Video traffic is expected to account for a significant share of the traffic volume in the future asynchronous transfer mode (ATM) networks. MPEG-2 proposed by Moving Picture Expert Group is one of the most promising compression techniques for such applications. One of the critical issues in MPEG-2 is to realize effective variable bit rate (VBR) video transfer thorough ATM networks. The Leaky Bucket (LB) scheme has been widely accepted as the usage parameter control (UPC) mechanism to police the VBR sources. We proposed a new Adaptive Dynamic Leaky Bucket (ADLB) congestion control mechanism, which is based on the LB scheme. Unlike the conventional LB, the leak rate of the ADLB is controlled using delayed feedback information of available bandwidth sent by the network. This scheme allows sources to get varying amounts of bandwidth over time, while reserving a minimum guaranteed bandwidth (MCR) for the entire duration of the connection. At the time of congestion, the leak rate of the ADLB is adjusted according to the feedback indicating the currently available bandwidth to the connection. The simulation results show that the end-to-end cell transfer delay and cell loss of each source has been improved significantly.     

Buffer losses vs. deadline violations for ABR traffic in an ATM switch: A computational approach

The B‐ISDN will carry a variety of traffic types: the Variable Bit Rate traffic (VBR), of which compressed video is an example, Continuous Bit Rate traffic (CBR), of which telemetry is an example, Data traffic, and Available Bit Rate traffic (ABR) that represents aggregate data traffic with very limited guarantees on quality. Of these, VBR and CBR have timing constraints and need synchronous bandwidth; data traffic is relatively delay insensitive. In this paper, we consider the VBR, Data and ABR traffic types and obtain the cumulative distribution function (cdf) of the queueing delay experienced by a burst of ABR traffic in the output buffer of an ATM switch. The cdf is used to trade off buffer loss probabilities against deadline violation probabilities through adjusting the buffer size and (delay) deadline values. Large buffers result in low losses but queueing delays can become excessive and cause a high level of deadline violations. Both losses and violations are detrimental and an operating point must be chosen to achieve a balance. In this paper we study the nature of the trade off. We develop a stochastic Petri net model assuming periodic burst arrivals for VBR and Poisson arrival processes for the Data and ABR traffic types at the burst level, and solve the model analytically (numerically) using a decomposition approach. This decomposition, along with the inherent decomposability of the tagged customer approach for obtaining the cdf opens up a possibility of carrying out fast computations using a parallel machine for selecting the operating point each time that a call is admitted. This revised version was published online in June 2006 with corrections to the Cover Date.     

Guaranteed quality-of-service wireless access to ATM networks

We study the problem of wireless access to asynchronous transfer modes (ATMs). We consider three classes of ATM sources: constant bit rate (CBR), variable bit rate (VBR), and available bit rate (ABR). We propose a polling scheme with nonpreemptive priority. Under such a scheme, we derive sufficient conditions such that all the CBR sources satisfy their jitter constraints and all the VBR sources satisfy their delay constraints. The remaining bandwidth is used by the ABR sources, for which we adapt a random access scheme proposed by Chen and Lee (1994). For this random access scheme, we derive the throughput-offer load characteristic, and thus the capacity. Based on this, we propose adaptive random access schemes that track the offer load to its optimal value. Our simulations show that our adaptive schemes maintain a high throughput with respect to the whole range of system load     

Modelling and analysis of routing and resource allocation techniques in multi‐service networks

In this paper a novel call level model based on the extension of the classical Erlang multi‐rate model for broadband integrated services networks is proposed. We use the model to study routing strategies in multi‐service networks where service classes with/without QoS guarantees coexist. Examples for such networks include ATM and IP‐based integrated networks. In ATM, the CBR and VBR service classes provide QoS guarantees, while the ABR and UBR service classes are of the best effort type. In IP, traditional TCP/IP traffic is of the best effort type, while new protocols like the RSVP or the differentiated services with central resource handling attempt to support QoS parameters. The coexistence of guaranteed and best effort traffic gives rise to new challenging problems since for a given elastic (best effort) connection the bottleneck link determines the available bandwidth and thereby puts constraints on the bandwidth at the other links along the connection's path. Since the available bandwidth fluctuates in time following the load on the links, routing and link allocation in this environment together with blocking probability calculations and fairness issues need to be studied. By means of our proposed model we are able to conduct a survey of various routing and link allocation techniques as well as to develop a modified shortest path routing algorithm which, according to the numerical examples, performs well in this environment. Copyright © 1999 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

The DDTCI switch algorithm for ABR traffic control in ATM networks

For the issue of flow control for Available Bit Rate (ABR) traffic in ATM network,a new improved Explicit Rate (ER) algorithm named Dynamic Double Threshold Congestion Indication (DDTCI) algorithm is presented based on the Explicit Forward Congestion Indication (EFCI) Current Cell Rate (CCR) algorithm and Relative Rate (RR) algorithm. Different from the early ER algorithm, both the high-level and the low-level threshold is dynamically changing according to the state of the bottleneck node. We determinate the congestion state with the information of the two dynamic threshold, and control the cell rate of the source by feed back mechanism. Except for the well performance in both link utilization and fairness in distribution of available bandwidth, the improved algorithm can alleviate the fluctuation of sending rate dramatically. The mechanism is modeled by a fluid model, and the useful expressions are derived.Simulation results show up our conclusion.     

Evaluating the impact of emerging streaming media applications onTCP/IP performance

Emerging streaming media applications in the Internet primarily use UDP transport. The difficulty with supporting this type of traffic on the Internet is that they not only generate large volumes of traffic, but they are also not as responsive to network congestion as TCP-based applications. As a result, streaming media UDP traffic can cause two major problems in the Internet: congestion collapse and unfair allocations of bandwidth among competing traffic flows. A solution to these problems is available in many Internet environments. The Internet backbone, various ISPs, and DSL access networks rely on ATM as their layer 2 transport technology, and in such environments, ATM's available bit rate service can efficiently address these problems. ABR is able to avoid congestion collapse and provide fair bandwidth allocations by distributing the unutilized bandwidth fairly among competing flows. This article presents simulation results and empirical measurements that illustrate the congestion collapse and unfairness problems, and ATM ABR's effectiveness in addressing those problems     

On the effects of traffic mixtures in direct broadcast satellite networks

In this paper we present a multi‐criterion control simulation in a realistically complex environment of a satellite network, involving non‐symmetric up and downlinks. Direct broadcast satellite (DBS) networks carrying heterogeneous traffic is characterized with challenges, such as high traffic burstiness, wireless channel dynamics, and large, but limited capacity. On the other hand, there are system characteristics that can be leveraged to address these challenges such as in centralized topology, different levels in quality of service (QoS) and priorities, availability of side information about channel conditions, flexibility in delivery of delay insensitive traffic, etc. We have developed an adaptive resource allocation and management (ARAM) system that takes the advantage of such characteristics to maximize the utilization of the available capacity on the forward DBS link, while maintaining QoS in the presence of channel effects and congestion in the network. Since variable‐bit‐rate (VBR) video traffic is given priority over available‐bit‐rate (ABR) data traffic in the ARAM concept, in this paper we investigate the impact of the fraction of VBR load in overall load. Copyright © 2002 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Measured average cell rate‐based congestion avoidance scheme

Techniques for congestion control of available bit‐rate (ABR) traffic in ATM (asynchronous transfer mode) networks remain an important issue. Several congestion control schemes have been proposed to adjust the cell rates of sources with a modified or mean allowed cell rate. To make these schemes work effectively in practice, the modified or mean allowed cell rate must converge under all conditions. However, it is not easy to obtain an accurate value, and an inaccurate value could result in network performance degradation such as severe oscillations and considerable unfairness. Therefore, we propose a measured average cell rate‐based congestion avoidance for ABR traffic in ATM networks. The scheme has high throughput and achieves shorter queue lengths without congestion. With measured average cell rate, the scheme provides fast convergence to a start‐up virtual connection (VC) and rate of equalization from different initial conditions of the sources. Thus, this scheme provides better fairness among connections. Copyright © 2001 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Multiple access control with intelligent bandwidth allocation forwireless ATM networks

Two major challenges pertaining to wireless asynchronous transfer mode (ATM) networks are the design of multiple access control (MAC), and dynamic bandwidth allocation. While the former draws more attention, the latter has been considered nontrivial and remains mostly unresolved. We propose a new intelligent multiple access control system (IMACS) which includes a versatile MAC scheme augmented with dynamic bandwidth allocation, for wireless ATM networks. IMACS supports four types of traffic-CBR, VBR, ABR, and signaling control (SCR). It aims to efficiently satisfy their diverse quality-of-service (QoS) requirements while retaining maximal network throughput. IMACS is composed of three components: multiple access controller (MACER), traffic estimator/predictor (TEP), and intelligent bandwidth allocator (IBA). MACER employs a hybrid-mode TDMA scheme, in which its contention access is based on a new dynamic-tree-splitting (DTS) collision resolution algorithm parameterized by an optimal splitting depth (SD). TEP performs periodic estimation and on-line prediction of ABR self-similar traffic characteristics based on wavelet analysis and a neural-fuzzy technique. IBA is responsible for static bandwidth allocation for CBR/VBR traffic following a closed-form formula. In cooperation with TEP, IBA governs dynamic bandwidth allocation for ABR/SCR traffic through determining the optimal SD. The optimal SDs under various traffic conditions are postulated via experimental results, and then off-line constructed using a back propagation neural network (BPNN), being used on-line by IBA. Consequently, with dynamic bandwidth allocation, IMACS offers various QoS guarantees and maximizes network throughput irrelevant to traffic variation     

ATM网络中CBR业务排队性能分析

分析了ATM网络中CBR业务排队性能,给出了一种简单的计算信元丢失率和信元平均时延的表达式.分析结果表明,一方面在较小的缓冲区容量下,即使CBR业务被分配的带宽大于等于其峰值速率,也还存在着较大的信元丢失;另一方面,当复用的CBR业务源数目很大时,只需要分配相对较小的缓冲区容量就可以满足十分低的信元丢失率要求.该结果对于ATM设备中相应的缓冲区设计、带宽分配以及连接允许控制机制的研究具有重要的意义.     

A Partially-Blocking Queueing System with CBR/VBR and ABR/UBR Arrival Streams

In this paper we consider an ATM transmission link, to which CBR or VBR and ABR or UBR calls arrive according to independent Poisson processes. CBR/VBR calls (characterized by their equivalent bandwidth) are blocked and leave the system if the available link capacity is less than required at the time of arrival. ABR/UBR calls, however, accept partial blocking, meaning that they may enter service even if the available capacity is less than the specified required peak bandwidth, but greater than the so called minimal accepted bandwidth. Partially blocked ABR/UBR calls instead experience longer service time, since smaller given bandwidth entails proportionally longer time spent in the system, as first suggested in [3] and analyzed in details herein. Throughout the life time of an ABR/UBR connection, its bandwidth consumption fluctuates in accordance with the current load on the link but always at the highest possible value up to their peak bandwidth (greedy sources). Additionally, if this minimal accepted bandwidth is unavailable at the time of arrival, ABR/UBR calls are allowed to wait in a finite queue. This system is modeled by a Continuous Time Markov Chain (CTMC) and the CBR/VBR and ABR/UBR blocking probabilities and the mean ABR/UBR waiting- and service times are derived.     

ATM网络中面向ABR服务的一种流量控制机制

在ATM网络有效和稳定的运行过程中,拥塞控制起着重要的作用.对此,本文提出一种方法来设计基于速率的流量控制机制以便调节ABR服务并有效地控制网络拥塞.目标是在多个竞争用户间公平分配可用链路带宽、维持瓶颈结点的队列长度在希望值.该机制基于最小节拍(DR)控制并具有非常简单的结构.仿真结果表明,该控制机制是公平的并且具有快速收敛、无振荡和高链路带宽利用率的优点.