Bandwidth allocation for VBR video traffic in ATM networks

In this paper, we study the bandwidth allocation problem for an ATM multiplexer loaded with compressed VBR video sources. To estimate the bandwidth required by a VBR video source, we characterize its traffic by five parameters: peak rate, bottom rate, mean rate, standard deviation, and the coefficient of the autocorrelation function. The aggregate traffic of a number of VBR video sources is modelled by a discrete-time Markov modulated deterministic process (D-MMDP) which is approximately equal to the superposition of a number of identical and independent two-active-state mini-sources. Based on the effective bandwidth approach and the Gaussian approximation, we derive simple formulas for estimating the required bandwidth.