Efficient support for client/server applications over heterogeneous ATM networks

We present a new network design problem that is applicable for designing virtual paths (VPs) in an asynchronous transfer mode (ATM) network to efficiently support client/server applications. We present several alternatives for the solution, compare their properties, and focus on a novel "greedy" solution, which we prove to optimize certain important criteria (namely, the network overhead for a request/response and the utilization of bandwidth and routing table resources). We also present simulation results that demonstrate the performance and scalability of our solution. In addition, we propose a new efficient bandwidth allocation scheme which is tailored for client/server applications over ATM networks.