A robust heuristic for minimizing cell loss in ATM networks

Limited buffers in ATM network elements will inevitably result in cell loss. We model an ATM network as a tandem network with finite buffers and investigate the performance of a cell-level control policy (the HILO heuristic) that is designed to minimize cell loss rates. The HILO heuristic is based on limited feedback about the cells awaiting transmission in adjacent network nodes. We demonstrate via analysis and simulation that this scheme can reduce cell loss by substantial amounts over the simple FCFS scheme. The parameters of the control policy can be modified adaptively to maximize the reduction in loss rates. The heuristic is robust in the sense that it is relatively insensitive to values of the control parameters, and is effective for different traffic loads and arrival patterns