Dynamic bandwidth allocation in high speed integrated service networks

Resource allocation mechanisms are needed in high speed integrated service networks to allow provision of Quality of Service (QOS) guarantees to network users. One of the ways this may be achieved is to explicitly classify connections as belonging to different classes based on their QOS requirements and to provide differential grades of service, at all queueing points in the network, to each class. We assume that the links in the network are the slowest points; thus the problem of providing different QOS guarantees is equivalent to that of allocating bandwidth to the different classes of traffic. In this paper we study a threshold based dynamic allocation policy, which we call DQT, in which the bandwidth allocated to each class is altered based on the queue occupancy at the end of a frame. We consider two classes of traffic with different QOS requirements and show that the performance of the proposed scheme is better than that of a static allocation scheme. We examine the performance of the scheme and the parameter sensitivity under both stationary and non-stationary conditions and indicate how parameter valves may be chosen.