Toward a broadband congestion control strategy

The congestion control problem in asynchronous transfer mode (ATM) based broadband networks is defined. In general, a suitable set of congestion controls will include features for admission control, buffer and queue management, traffic enforcement, and reactive control. The leading alternatives for each of these congestion control features are summarized. An approach for choosing the best of these alternatives is presented, and a reasonable set of such alternatives that captures the increased utilization due to statistical multiplexing is suggested. It uses separate and static bandwidth pools for each service category; a statistical multiplexing gain determined for each bandwidth pool that supports a variable-bit-rate (VBR) service category; traffic enforcement on a virtual circuit basis using a leaky bucket algorithm with parameters set to accommodate anticipated levels of cell transfer delay variation; and multilevel loss priorities as well as a reactive control for appropriate VBR service categories based on multithreshold traffic enforcement and explicity congestion notification.<>