A dynamic bandwidth allocation scheme for ATM networks

A multiple link and multiple traffic type asynchronous transfer mode (ATM) network environment is considered. To efficiently utilize the network resource at low network mangement cost, the authors propose a dynamic bandwidth allocation scheme using call admissible regions as a control basis. The allocated bandwidth for a traffic stream belonging to a virtual path is set to be an integer multiple of the basic required bandwidth of a single call, which is carried by a virtual channel. In addition, the system state vector, a tuple of the number of calls of each traffic type, is required to be within the call admissible region such that the grade-of-service for all traffic types is satisfied. A generic mathematical model is proposed for the analysis of the dynamic bandwidth allocation scheme. Using the analytical formulas, the bandwidth utilization and management cost of two simple experimental networks are obtained. The conclusion is that by carefully selecting the bandwidth allocation unit, the network management cost can be significantly reduced in terms of bandwidth adjustment and high utilization can still be maintained even under a heterogeneous traffic environment