The concept of fairness and a GFC protocol

Multiple access to a single user-network interface (UNI) is a cost-effective solution for the provision of B-ISDN services in customer premises. In a multiple access configuration, a fairly shared access must ensure that each terminal will get a guaranteed bandwidth to provide an acceptable quality of service (QoS) and that the allocation of the remaining bandwidth will result in the same improvement of QoS for all the terminals. An approach to allocating the remaining bandwidth is proposed. It is based on both the guaranteed bandwidth required by the terminal and the probability that the terminal's bit rate exceeds its guaranteed bandwidth. The basic generic flow control (GFC) protocol mechanism and the GFC field settings for a dual-bus customer premises network (CPN) are described.<
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