Real-time estimation of UPC parameters for arbitrary traffic sources in ATM networks

Abstract

In networks based on the asynchronous transfer mode (ATM), traffic sources are subjected to a usage parameter control (UPC) function which controls the emitted cell stream by either discarding or delaying cells according to the parameters of a deterministic algorithm (e.g. the dual leaky bucket). The UPC parameters constitute a traffic descriptor which are used to allocate network resources to the traffic source. This paper presents a scheme for determining dual leaky bucket UPC parameter values for an arbitrary traffic source from observations of its emitted cell stream. The selection of UPC parameters is based on a novel statistical characterization of the observed cell stream, the user's tolerance for traffic shaping and a cost function based on the network resource allocation policy. Our scheme makes weak modeling assumptions and is robust for a wide class of traffic streams.