Resource allocation for broadband networks

The author suggests the use of congestion measures at the packet level, the burst level, and the call level to evaluate congestion for integrated traffic. These measures result from the fact that communication terminals can often be characterized in terms of call level, burst level, and packet level statistics. They can be used for the purpose of bandwidth allocation at these levels, virtually emulating the functions of circuit switching, fast circuit switching, and fast packet switching, respectively. Various methodologies are described for evaluating blocking probabilities at these levels. The analysis sheds light on traffic engineering issues such as appropriate link load, traffic integration, trunk group and switch sizing, and bandwidth reservation criteria for bursty services