International Business Machines Corporation. Research Division

Giovanni Pacifici

Ariel Orda

Dimitrios Pendarakis

Abstract: "We propose a new policy for virtual path bandwidth allocation in broadband networks. Based on a threshold scheme, our policy handles the inherent trade-off between bandwidth utilization and processing costs. In each virtual path controller the thresholds are chosen so as to keep bandwidth utilization high, while obtaining a low rate of processing requests. Two novel ideas are used in our threshold scheme: adaptivity, which results in a better prediction of future bandwidth requirements; and hyteresis, which prevents excessive processing of requests due to oscillations around thresholds. We tested the performance of our new bandwidth control scheme, and compared it with previously suggested schemes. The performance measures were the expected amount of unused bandwith, the average signaling load and the blocking probability. Performance has been evaluated through numerical computations as well as by simulations. Our analysis is based on a time segmentation technique which allows us to reduce a Markov chain with NM states into M Markov chains with N states and a one-dimensional chain with M states. Our results show that our policy significantly improves upon previously suggested approaches."

An Adaptive Virtual Path Allocation Policy for Broadband Networks

Ehab S. Al-Shaer

In recent years we have witnessed the explosion of multimedia traffic on the Internet. The availability of high bandwidth connections together with the recent advances in high quality video and audio compression techniques have created a fertile ground for the growth of multimedia applications such as interactive video on demand, collaborative distance learning, and remote medical diagnosis. Furthermore, the availability of low bit rate video and audio applications (e.g., H.263 and G.728) and the proliferation of pervasive devices create a new demand for wireless multimedia communication systems. After a decade or more of research and development in multimedia networking, the research community has learned a number of lessons. First, increasing the capacity of the “best effort” networks and services does not provide an effective and permanent solution for offering a guaranteed Quality of Service (QoS). Second, the integration of service and network management is a key element in providing end to end service management. Third, management techniques for Internet multimedia services must be scalable and adaptive to guarantee QoS and maintain fairness with optimal network resource.

4th IFIP/IEEE International Conference on Management of Multimedia Networks and Services, MMNS 2001, Chicago, IL, USA, October 29 - November 1, 2001. Proceedings

Giovanni Pacifici

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