Performance Evaluation And Applications Of Atm Networks

Information Highways are widely considered as the next generation of high speed communication systems. These highways will be based on emerging Broadband Integrated Services Digital Networks (B-ISDN), which - at least in principle - are envisioned to support not only all the kinds of networking applications known today but also future applications which are not as yet understood fully or even anticipated. Thus, B-ISDNs release networking processes from the limitations which the communications medium has imposed historically. The operational generality stems from the versatility of Asynchronous Transfer Mode (ATM) which is the transfer mode adopted by ITU-T for broadband public ISDN as well as wide area private ISDN. A transfer mode which provides the transmission, multiplexing and switching core that lies at the foundations of a communication network. ATM is designed to integrate existing and future voice, audio, image and data services. Moreover, ATM aims to minimise the complexity of switching and buffer management, to optimise intermediate node processing and buffering and to bound transmission delays. These design objectives are met at high transmission speeds by keeping the basic unit of ATM transmission - the ATM cell - short and of fixed length.

Over recent years, a considerable amount of effort has been devoted, both in industry and academia, towards the performance modelling, evaluation and prediction of Asynchronous Transfer Mode (ATM) networks. This book describes recent advances in ATM networks reflecting the state-of-the-art technology and research achievements worldwide. In addition, it provides a fundamental source of reference in the ATM field. Research topics discussed in detail include: Traffic Modelling and Characterisation; Routing; Switch and Multiplexer Models; Call Admission Control (CAC); Congestion Control; Resource Allocation; Quality of Service (QoS); Tools and Techniques. This volume contains recently extended refereed papers of the 5th International Workshop on Performance Modelling and Evaluation of ATM Networks, which was sponsored by the International Federation for Information Processing (IFIP) and held in Ilkley, UK in July 1997. Performance Analysis of ATM Networks continues the tradition established by the first three IFIP volumes on the subject, and it is ideal for personnel in computer/communication industries as well as academic and research staff in computer science and electrical engineering.

Throughout successive generations of information technology, the importance of the performance evaluation of software, computer architectures, and computer networks endures. For example, the performance issues of transaction processing systems and redundant arrays of independent disks replace the virtual memory and input-output problems of the 70s. ATM performance issues supercede those associated with electronic telephony of the 70s. As performance issues evolve with the technologies, so must our approach to evaluation. In System Performance Evaluation: Methodologies and Applications, top academic and industrial experts review the major issues now faced in this arena. In a series of structured, focused chapters, they present the state-of-the-art in performance methodologies and applications. They address developments in analytical modeling and its interaction with detailed analysis of measurement data. They also discuss performance evaluation methodologies for large-scale software systems - in general and in the context of critical applications, such as nuclear reactor control and air transportation systems. With its particular emphasis on network performance for wireless networks, the Internet, and ATM networking, System Performance Evaluation becomes the ideal vehicle for professionals in computer architecture, networking, and software engineering to stay up-to-date and proficient in this essential aspect of information technology.

Asynchronous Transfer Mode (ATM) networks are widely considered to be the new generation of high speed communication systems both for broadband public information highways and for local and wide area private networks. ATM is designed to integrate existing and future voice, audio, image and data services. Moreover, ATM aims to simplify the complexity of switching and buffer management, to optimise intermediate node processing and buffering and to limit transmission delays. However, to support such diverse services on one integrated communication network, it is most essential, through careful engineering, to achieve a fruitful balance amongst the conflicting requirements of different quality of service constraints ensuring that one service does not have adverse implications on another. Over recent years there has been a great deal of progress in research and development of ATM technology, but there are still many interesting and important problems to be resolved such as traffic characterisation and control, routing and optimisation, ATM switching techniques and the provision of quality of service. This book presents thirty-two research papers, both from industry and academia, reflecting latest original achievements in the theory and practice of performance modelling of ATM networks worldwide. These papers were selected, subject to peer review, from those submitted as extended and revised versions out of fifty-nine shorter papers presented at the Second IFIP Workshop on "Performance Modelling and Evaluation of ATM Networks" July 4-7, 1994, Bradford University. At least three referees from the scientific committee and externally were involved in the selection of each paper.

During recent years a great deal of progress has been made in performance modelling and evaluation of the Internet, towards the convergence of multi-service networks of diverging technologies, supported by internetworking and the evolution of diverse access and switching technologies. The 44 chapters presented in this handbook are revised invited works drawn from PhD courses held at recent HETNETs International Working Conferences on Performance Modelling and Evaluation of Heterogeneous Networks. They constitute essential introductory material preparing the reader for further research and development in the field of performance modelling, analysis and engineering of heterogeneous networks and of next and future generation Internets. The handbook aims to unify relevant material already known but dispersed in the literature, introduce the readers to unfamiliar and unexposed research areas and, generally, illustrate the diversity of research found in the high growth field of convergent heterogeneous networks and the Internet. The chapters have been broadly classified into 12 parts covering the following topics: Measurement Techniques; Traffic Modelling and Engineering; Queueing Systems and Networks; Analytic Methodologies; Simulation Techniques; Performance Evaluation Studies; Mobile, Wireless and Ad Hoc Networks, Optical Networks; QoS Metrics and Algorithms; All IP Convergence and Networking; Network Management and Services; and Overlay Networks.

Unlike many books on Asynchronous Transfer Mode, this text approaches the subject systematically and reflects the state-of-the-art technology being applied throughout the world today. In addition, it provides a fundamental source of reference in the ATM research field. The following topics are discussed in detail: * traffic modelling and characterisation * traffic and congestion control * bandwidth and admission control * ATM switch architecture * models of ATM switches * routing and optimisation * quality of service * network management * high speed LANs and MANs * performance modelling studies