Transient analysis of packet discarding policies in ATM networks with correlated arrivals

In this paper, we investigate several dynamic congestion control strategies in ATM networks. We present an analytic model to observe the transient behavior of correlated fixed sized cell arrivals into a congested buffer. We derive the transient and time-averaged cell loss probabilities for several packet discarding policies, and we also derive the moments of the first passage time from a congested state to a threshold below which the buffer is considered in a non-congested state. We present numerical results for arrival processes having the same marginal distributions, but differing by autocorrelation coefficient only, thus isolating the effects of correlation on transient behavior. We conjecture how these results affect buffer congestion management procedures.