Hybrid schemes simulation for ATM flow control

Flow control is one of the mechanisms employed to prevent and manage the congestion in ATM networks. Rate-based flow control and credit-based flow control are the two best known schemes. None of those mechanisms satisfies entirely the requirements of flow control for LAN and WAN environments simultaneously, but each one has key advantages. This situation originated proposals for integrated rate-credit mechanisms as an alternative for operation in different environments. The objective of this work is to implement and evaluate, through simulation, two of the proposed hybrid mechanisms: credit optional and validity count.