Multi-frame isochronous service for ATM networks: stop-and go revisited

The ATM switching scheme we propose is similar to the multi-frame stop-and-go, except that we use EDF (earliest-deadline-first) scheduling, instead of rate-monotonic, static-priority scheduling. Unlike the multi-frame stop-and-go, our scheme can fully utilize the link bandwidth, and does not require that the input or output frames of the same size be synchronized. EDF scheduling is, in general, more complex than static-priority scheduling. However, we show that the next earliest deadline needs to be computed only when an output frame reaches its end, i.e., not whenever a cell is output, resulting in significant saving in computation time. We derive bounds on end-to-end delay and delay-jitter, and discuss implementation issues