Discretised fluid-flow analysis for ATM connection admission control

An important outstanding problem in ATM networking is the design of practical connection admission control algorithms which allow efficient use of bandwidth resources. Turning away custom should be a very rare event, otherwise competitors are likely to benefit. Turning away custom which could in fact be accepted is a serious mistake! This paper summarises a new fluid-flow analysis method which can be applied as a more accurate component in connection admission control and bandwidth management algorithms for ATM networks. The method treats excess rate arrivals as a discrete process rather than as a continuous fluid. The results from fluid-flow analysis based on differential equations can be scaled because of the continuous fluid assumption. Results from this new discretised analysis cannot. This can make a significant difference to the bandwidth required to meet cell loss targets