An effective and fairness merging algorithm for multipoint-to-point ABR flow control in ATM networks

The key issue at a merging point switch for multipoint-to-point available bit rate (ABR) connections is how to define fairness within a multicast group, and among multicast groups and unicast connections. Another problem lies in the handling of RM cells so that heterogeneous sources can send cells at different data rates while the defined fairness of bandwidth allocation can be achieved. In this paper, we extend the max-min fairness to multipoint-to-point environment and propose a new efficient multipoint-to-point switch algorithm at merging point to solve the problem and allocate bandwidth fairly among multicast sources. The simulation results show that our mechanism provides fair bandwidth allocation and short queue length at switch node, while the convergence time is limited.