Shivkumar Kalyanaraman, "Traffic Management for the Available Bit Rate (ABR) Service in Asynchronous Transfer Mode (ATM) Networks," PhD Dissertation, The Ohio State University, 1997, xxiv + 429.

With the merger of telecommunication, entertainment and computer industries, computer networking is adopting a new paradigm called Asynchronous Transfer Mode (ATM) networking. ATM networks have multiple service classes allow audio, video and data to share the same network. Of these, the Available Bit Rate (ABR) service class is designed to efficiently support data traffic.

Traffic management involves the design of a set of mechanisms which ensure that the network bandwidth, buffer and computational resources are efficiently utilized while meeting the various Quality of Service (QoS) guarantees given to sources as part of a traffic contract. The general problem of network traffic management involves all the available traffic classes. In this dissertation, we address the problem of designing traffic management mechanisms for one class - the ABR service class in ATM networks.

We consider five aspects of this problem in this dissertation. First, the ABR service requires a mechanism to carry rate feedback from the network switches to the sources. We design three switch algorithms (the OSU scheme, the ERICA and ERICA+ schemes) which calculate the rate allocations to satisfy different sets of goals. Second, we design a set of source end system mechanisms which respond to network feedback, and perform control in the case when feedback is disrupted or is stale. Third, we validate the performance of the service for various ABR and VBR demand patterns. Specifically, we study the case of Internet traffic over ATM-ABR. Fourth, we consider the switch design issues for a specific ABR framework option called the ``Virtual Source/Virtual Destination'' option. Finally, we discuss cost/performance issues pertaining to the implementation of the service.

In summary, this dissertation work addresses fundamental issues in ATM ABR traffic management, and the techniques developed are applicable to a wider class of high-speed packet networks.

Complete dissertation in Adobe Acrobat (4,063,454 Bytes)

Part I:
Abstract, dedication, acknowledgments, vita, and contents

Adobe Acrobat (163,134 Bytes)

Part II:
Chapter 1: Introduction and problem statement
Chapter 2: The ABR traffic management framework
Chapter 3: Switch scheme design issues

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Part III:
Chapter 4: Survey of ATM switch congestion control scheme proposals

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Part IV:
Chapter 5: The Ohio State University (OSU) scheme

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Part V:
Chapter 6: The ERICA and ERICA+ schemes

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Part VI:
Chapter 7: Source rule design for the ABR service

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Part VII:
Chapter 8: Supporting Internet applications over the ATM-ABR service

Postscript (1,116,429 Bytes)

Part VIII:
Chapter 9: The virtual source/virtual destination (VS/VD) feature: Design considerations
Chapter 10: Implementation issues
Chapter 11: Summary and future work
Appendix A: Source, destination and switch rules
Appendix B: The OSU scheme: pseudocode
Appendix C: ERICA switch algorithm: detailed description
Appendix D: Glossary of commonly used acronyms
Bibliography

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