Using active networking for congestion control in high-speed networks with self-similar traffic

Various papers have discussed the impact of burstiness on network congestion. Their conclusions are that congested periods can be quite long with packet losses that are heavily concentrated. Several conventional methods have been implemented to avoid congestion, such as traffic shaping, end-to-end feedback congestion control systems, etc. These methods are not responsive enough to the varying bandwidth and network delay caused by bursty traffic. The objective of the paper is to describe a new algorithm to avoid congestion without the negative effects of traditional methods. A model developed under Compuware´s COMNET, the discrete event simulation system, illustrates the algorithm. The model is based on real traffic collected in an ATM network