Stochastic service curve and delay bound analysis: A single node case

Abstract

A packet-switched network node with constant capacity (in bps) is considered, where packets within each flow are served in the first in first out (FIFO) manner. While this single node system is perhaps the simplest computer communication system, its stochastic service curve characterization and independent case analysis in the context of stochastic network calculus (snetcal) are still basic and many crucial questions surprisingly remain open. Specifically, when the input is a single flow, what stochastic service curve and delay bound does the node provide? When the considered flow shares the node with another flow, what stochastic service curve and delay bound does the node provide to the considered flow, and if the two flows are independent, can this independence be made use of and how? The aim of this paper is to provide answers to these fundamental questions.