Performance and stability aspects of congestion control by input buffer limiting in store and forward networks

Store-and-forward techniques in computer communication networks are addressed. The performance estimation and the stability aspects of an input buffer limiting (IBL) scheme are presented. The model is formulated with respect to the state-dependent effective input rate and effective service rate. The computation of the performance parameters with respect to the effective service rate yields satisfactory results when blocking probabilities are not restricted to very low values (≪1). The stability aspects are assessed with the results from catastrophe theory; the stability is characterized as fold catastrophe. It is seen that, at higher rates of input, this maximum value of the IBL ratio approaches the capacity law limit proposed by S. Lam and M. Reiser (1979). Further, this method also approximately indicates the no-congestion region