Congestion and flow control in private wide area ATM network-a simulation study

ATM is a promising technology for private network such as in business environment that requires wideband and multimedia communications. In private wide area ATM network various types of information (voice, video and data) can be statistically multiplexed onto high speed transmission streams with high efficiency. A fundamental challenge in the design of a robust B-ISDN architecture is the structuring of a comprehensive strategy for congestion and flow controls, which will be essential during those instances of resource overloads due to unforeseen traffic focussing and peaking. Unfortunately, the multi-megabit-per-second speeds that is responsible for the high performance/capacity of B-ISDN networks will also severely limit the number of implementable and stable congestion control strategies. A preventive congestion control strategy is discussed. The aim is to have a simple, effective, fair control that is not optimized for any specific service types