Evaluation of flow control algorithms for ABR multipoint services

In this paper, we first present a simulation-based evaluation of existing multipoint-to-point (mp-p) flow control schemes for ABR (available bit rate) services in ATM (asynchronous transfer mode) networks. The evaluation shows that these schemes suffer from one or more of the following problems: non-compliance with the selected bandwidth allocation definition (BAD), link under-utilization, and prolonged rate fluctuations. Moreover, most of them implement only one BAD, namely source-based allocation. We then propose an mpp flow control algorithm, the WSB (weighted-source-based) algorithm that is effective and supports a large set of BADs. Experimental results are presented to demonstrate the advantages of the WSB algorithm: correct rate allocations with fast convergence, maximum link utilization, and minimal rate oscillations.