An ATM access network for multimedia communications

In an ATM customer premises network, there is advantage in having shared access across the one broadband user network interface (UNI). We consider ATM shared access issues based on the generic flow control (GFC) protocols as network support for multimedia communications, and we propose a mechanism for shared-medium access to an ATM/B-ISDN network to support multimedia traffic. The access scheme proposed is based on direct access to a slotted medium on a ring network. By installing insertion buffers at each station one reduces media access time, and the spatial reuse by the destination release procedure increases the throughput. The proposed reset-window with buffer insertion includes prioritized access for multimedia communications transport. This access protocol is described and its performance is analyzed. The mean cell access delay and the fair sharing of the non-guaranteed bandwidth are evaluated by simulation.