DISTRIBUTED SOURCE CONTROL - A NETWORK ACCESS-CONTROL FOR INTEGRATED BROAD-BAND PACKET NETWORKS

Broadband packet networks based on asynchronous transfer mode (ATM) must support new services with widely different traffic characteristics and service requirements. New congestion control strategies are now necessary for such integration to be successful. In this paper, we propose a congestion control strategy called distributed source control (DSC), designed to address the integration of these diverse traffic types in broadband packet networks. DSC is a rate-based network access control implemented at the ATM layer as a feedforward control, in conjunction with an adaptive end-to-end control between network edges. We examine the performance of high-speed data traffic such as large file transfers, still images, and document retrievals projected to be high runners in future networks. We also study its integrability with real-time traffic such as voice and video. With the help of a simulation model of a broadband packet network, we quantify the improvement in network performance due to DSC. We also develop an analytic model for an access node under DSC, and provide guidelines for sizing of buffers in the switch and for choosing the end-to-end window size.