An integrated system for video, voice and data communications

A particular technique for integrating different categories of traffic, typified as data, voice, and video in a multimedia environment, is discussed. The available bandwidth is divided into two portions, one for the first-class traffic that encompasses video and voice, which is never to be exceeded, and a second for the buffered data traffic that varies according to the first-class load. The efficiency of this technique is due to the fact that unused bandwidth dedicated to the service of the first class is readily available to the data traffic, which experiences a variable service rate according to the traffic intensity of the preemptive first-class traffic. The sharing of the transmission bandwidth is accomplished via a movable boundary technique. The analysis is based on decomposition and matrix geometric techniques supplying results for high-capacity applications