Allocating fair rates for available bit rate service in ATM networks

A central issue in congestion control for the available bit rate (ABR) service in ATM networks is the computation of the fair rate for every connection at each switching node in the network. The objective is to determine the fair rate for all the connections in a distributed network under dynamic changes in the absence of centralized knowledge about the network, and without the synchronization of different network components. The authors study the problem of fair rate allocation, specifying the requirements of a fair rate allocation algorithm, and provide a survey of various proposed fair rate allocation strategies in the context of the ABR service.