A simple theory of traffic and resource allocation in ATM

The authors propose a simple framework to study the tradeoffs between bandwidth and buffer in an asynchronous transfer mode (ATM) network. Traffic is modeled as a deterministic fluid. The key concept is the burstiness curve b(μ) which gives, for a connection, the maximum number b(μ) of cells that must be buffered if the connection is served at a fixed rate of μ cells per second. Two popular service disciplines, the fixed rate discipline and the leaky bucket discipline, are shown to be burst reducing. The characterization of a class of practical service disciplines that are burst reducing is obtained. The tradeoffs between buffer and bandwidth along a connection and the options for resource allocation among simultaneous connections are considered