Using the imprecise-computation technique for congestion control on a real-time traffic switching element

The broadband integrated services digital network provides communication services with different requirements, including real-time services such as voice and video. Real-time services are affected by the probabilistic behavior of such a network. In particular, when the network becomes congested, the end-to-end packet delay may exceed the maximum allowed. Fortunately, many real-time services are willing to trade service quality for information timeliness. The imprecise-computation technique, in combination with layered coding schemes, makes this tradeoff possible.