Performance analysis of a cascade of packet multiplexers loaded with correlated inputs

The loss performance of a whole virtual circuit in a packet switching broadband network with heterogeneous bursty traffic is studied. Such a study requires the packet loss characterization of a cascade of multiplexing or switching buffered elements. The focus is on the analysis of the modification experienced by the arrival process of a single source when it passes through a multiplexer. There is an expectation that the burstiness might be reduced by concatenating several nodes; instead it is shown that the packet loss behavior of the buffered elements inside the network is very similar to that of the access one. The main result, from a modeling point of view, is that it is not necessary to consider different models for the output of every buffered element in the network