Synchronous ATM-an analysis of a call-packing algorithm

The author considers a scenario where a large number of STM-1 (155 Mbit/s) interfaces each carrying about 2000 individual speech channels are switched by ATM. The following methods of reducing delays have been suggested: (i) more than one call per cell-four or five were identified as desirable; and (ii) short cells, i.e. only 20-25% of data payload occupied. The paper attempts to analyse some of the performance characteristics associated with solution (i), particularly the question of which call allocation strategy should be employed and what bandwidth is required at the ATM interface to achieve a given call-connection failure probability