Bandwidth utilization and fairness policy analysis of resilient packet ring

Resilient packet ring (RPR) is a new technology that has just been standardized as IEEE 802.17 for metropolitan area networks (MAN). RPR provides higher bandwidth utilization than other ring technologies. We develop a primary bandwidth model of RPR and analyse its bandwidth utilization and fairness policy. The results show that: RPR has maximum bandwidth utilization factor in a "ring" traffic pattern, and has no advantages over conventional rings in a "star" traffic pattern; the bandwidth utilization factor of RPR can reach 2 times that of conventional rings in a "balance mesh" traffic pattern using node-based fairness policy, and more nearly 2 times using a flow-based fairness policy. The results hint that flow-based fairness is the optimum policy for RPR to achieve maximum throughput.