An efficient reservation connection control protocol for gigabit networks

The efficient reservation virtual circuit (or ERVC) protocol is a novel connection control protocol designed for constant-rate delay-insensitive traffic in gigabit networks. In the ERVC protocol, session durations are recorded and capacity is reserved only for the duration of the session, starting at the time it is actually needed. The protocol also has the "reservation ahead" feature, which allows a node to calculate the time at which the requested capacity will be available and reserve it in advance, thus avoiding wasteful repetition of the call setup phase. In addition, the protocol is robust to link and node failures, and allows soft recovery from processor failures. The ERVC protocol is one of the two candidate protocols that we are considering for implementation in the 40 Gbit/s ATM-based fiber-optic Thunder and Lightning network currently being developed at UCSB.