On performance characteristics of ATM networks

The performance characteristics of asynchronous transfer mode (ATM) networks are investigated and contrasted with the performance characteristics of variable length packets. ATM, the transport mode of choice for broadband ISDN, uses short, fixed length cells to transmit the variable length packets generated by users. The simulation models and their parameters are presented. Under the assumptions considered, ATM is observed to require less buffer and have larger variability in the end to end delays. The average delay values depend on the number of hops in a path the source traffic goes through, the fraction of the source traffic to the total traffic, and the total traffic. In the examples given, the buffer size is fixed. However, for a given packet loss probability, networks with variable length packets should have larger average delays than the values presented, as they require larger buffers