A traffic control mechanism for ATM networks

The paper presents a traffic control mechanism, termed (L,M,T) mechanism, for ATM networks. The (L,M,T) mechanism polices the peak rate, the long term average rate and the maximum burst length that is allowed to enter the ATM network. The L in the (L,M,T) mechanism refers to the minimum inter-cell distance that is permitted within a burst. This feature is used to control the peak rate of traffic entering the ATM network. M refers to the maximum number of cells per burst that are allowed to enter the ATM network. T is the minimum distance that is enforced between two adjacent bursts. The value of T fluctuates between a minimum value and a maximum value depending upon information that is collected from a few previous bursts. Assuming a bursty on/off traffic source, the authors demonstrate how to dimension the mechanism. They develop an analytic model for their mechanism to determine the probability of violation for a cell belonging to an on/off traffic source. A comparison of the scheme with the leaky bucket scheme is presented.