Rate adapters with bursty arrivals and rational rate reduction: queueing analysis

In ATM-based communication networks, the transmission links that interconnect the network nodes do not necessarily operate at the same transmission speeds. If the speed of the incoming link in a node exceeds the speed of the outgoing link, a rate adaptation buffer must be provided in order to avoid frequent cell loss. This paper presents an analytical queueing analysis of a rate adaptation buffer in the case where the cell arrival stream on the incoming link is modeled as an interrupted Bernoulli process and the ratio of the arrival rate versus the transmission rate can take any rational value. Based on a generating-functions approach, an expression for the probability generating function of the buffer contents is derived. From this result, closed-form formulas for several performance measures are obtained. The results are illustrated by some numerical examples.