Application of rate and buffer occupancy measurements in congestion detection and management: a simulation study

When two heterogeneous networks operating at different speeds are interconnected, congestion could arise. This is especially true in the case of high-speed networks, where window-based flow control is no longer suitable. If not properly managed, congestion could lead to poor bandwidth utilisation, excessive packet loss or large queueing delays. Based on traffic simulation studies at an FDDI/B-ISDN gateway, this paper evaluates the relative merits of using rate and buffer occupancy in the detection of congestion and the use of such measures to provide simple bandwidth management. In addition, a dynamic bandwidth management scheme based on using both rate and buffer occupancy is recommended as it combines the advantages of both schemes and provides more reliable performance over a range of bursty traffic