ABR service in ATM networks: performance comparison between adaptive stochastic, ERICA, BECN and BP congestion control schemes with guaranteed minimum cell rate

Performances of four congestion control schemes for ABR service in ATM networks: explicit rate for congestion avoidance (ERICA), backward explicit congestion notification (BECN), back pressure (BP) and proposed adaptive stochastic (AS), are compared under heavy load conditions. Neither of the schemes dictates a particular switch architecture. The requirements tested include: utilization, queuing delay, queuing delay variance and queue size. A simple network topology involves an ATM switching node which is modeled as a single server queuing system fed by a number of highly bursty traffic sources. Neither packet discarding, nor packet retransmission mechanisms are included. The controllable sources' allowed cell rates (ACR) are dynamically shaped by the feedback messages from the switch. The results of a simulation study are presented which suggest that the AS scheme can provide for higher priority traffic considerably shorter queuing delay, queuing delay variance and average queue size, than the other three schemes, while retaining the same utilization.