A hierarchical multimedia network architecture and its QoS control mechanism in broadband ISDN

This article presents an efficient multimedia B-ISDN network architecture wherein each connection's end-to-end QoS is controlled only at VP access points. It is based on a high speed, high quality, CBR-VP backbone network, and a flexible, multimedia VC network. It also proposes a new traffic shaping mechanism for the VP access points which precisely controls cell clumping at the VC level. This yields an efficient bandwidth allocation method that improves the network utilization gain compared with conventional shapers. The architecture and multi-QoS control mechanism are highly suitable for the simple implementation of a simple and high performance network that will support a wide range of multimedia communication services.