Traffic management and priority control in an ATM test-bed

A field grade ATM test bed has been built to understand the role of ATM technology in providing network infrastructure for transporting current and emerging services. Physical, ATM, AAL, and application level testing and measurements are being used to obtain this understanding. One aspect undergoing investigation is the role of cell level traffic controls. In this, we discuss the testing, measurements, and analysis to investigate how ATM traffic controls deployed in switches can be used to manage the resources in a broadband ATM network. Traffic contracts based on UPC and traffic policing at the network edge have been tested to understand how cell-level controls on a per-virtual-circuit basis affect CBR and data applications. The effects of priority controls as implemented in the test-bed have also been studied to understand how diverse applications (voice over CES, bursty data) can share network facilities.