Comparison of static and dynamic bandwidth allocation schemes for multiple QOS classes in ATM networks

In ATM networks, the bandwidth of the virtual paths (VPs) are allocated individually for the support of different traffic classes with different quality of service (QOS) requirements within a VP. A VP combination scheme defined by Chan and Tsang (see Proc. of ICCCN 94, San Francisco 11-14 Sept. 1994) is a way to assign traffic classes to different VPs for satisfying all the QOS requirements. It is also referred to as static bandwidth allocation schemes which may not have good utilization of network resources because of not sharing the bandwidth among the VPs. Another approach that makes use of some priority handling mechanism and allows the VP bandwidth to be shared among the VPs can satisfy the different QOS requirements while maintaining efficient network use. This scheme is referred to as dynamic bandwidth allocation schemes. Numerical results of the dynamic schemes are compared to that of the static schemes to evaluate their performance difference (i.e., the total capacity and the total buffer required)