On the capacity of multi-service networks

When heterogeneous traffic types are integrated on a single network, the network may need to support several qualities of service (QoS). We study the capacity of a multiplexing node subject to individual QoS constraints and service policies designed to differentiate the QoS. In particular we reach a qualitative understanding of possible operation regimes for a system with two QoS classes by: (1) providing an intuitive picture of the admission and capacity regions for statistically multiplexed (bandwidth sharing) systems; (2) showing that the benefits of multiplexing accrue as the QoS differences increase; (3) showing that, in some cases, policies such as generalized processor sharing (GPS) present no advantage, in terms of capacity, over simpler priority schemes