High Performance Communication Networks, Second Edition
An advanced textbook surveying high-performance communication networks.
TABLE OF CONTENTS High Performance Communication Networks, Second Edition
8.4: ATM NETWORKS
8.4 ATM NETWORKS
In this section we attend to the control of virtual circuit networks in general and of ATM networks in particular.
We first outline the problems of control of virtual circuit networks. We explain that the user must describe its traffic in a way that can be enforced and monitored. Moreover, the traffic description must enable the network to control the traffic efficiently.
We then study results obtained by using deterministic models. Such deterministic models form the justification of most current recommendations for the control of ATM networks. In our view, this approach is unnecessarily conservative. Its main, and important, merit is that it is simple to implement.
We conclude the chapter by discussing statistical procedures for specifying traffic characteristics and for controlling the network. We believe that by adopting such procedures, the network can derive significantly higher revenues. However, these statistical procedures require further study. Our presentation outlines a few possibilities. We hope that this section will invite network engineers to study such methods further.
8.4.1 Control Problems
We explained in section 8.1 that the user and the network enter into a contract in which the network guarantees a quality of service while the user assures that the traffic will obey specific bounds. Implicit in any contract are provisions for verifying that the terms of the contract are observed by the various parties. Thus, the network must be able to verify that the traffic obeys its descriptors and the user that the quality of service is acceptable.
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