A Feedback Control Model for Multiple-Link Adaptive Bandwidth Provisioning Systems

Future IP networks are required to support services with different and distinct end-to-end Quality of Service (QoS) requirements. Adaptive bandwidth provisioning serves as an attractive solution for providing guaranteed distinctive QoS and maintaining high network efficiency at the same time. However, most previous research on adaptive bandwidth provisioning is limited to the single-link case and assumes dedicated bandwidth. This paper studies multiple-link adaptive bandwidth provisioning for end-to-end statistical QoS guarantee in bandwidth sharing networks with Generalized Processor Sharing (GPS) schedulers. A feedback control model for end-to-end multiple-link adaptive bandwidth provisioning systems is presented. This model is verified by simulations, and it is shown to match the actual dynamics of adaptive bandwidth provisioning systems well. Based on this feedback control model, different controllers are designed and analyzed using control theory, and their performances are compared. The analysis and simulations show that the proposed end-to-end multiple-link bandwidth provisioning scheme is able to provide guaranteed end-to-end statistical QoS, and that both the adaptive P controller and adaptive PI controller can achieve better performance than the simple non-adaptive P controller.