Adaptive holding policies for IP over ATM networks

Next generation wide area networks will be connection-oriented, with data-link layer connectivity being provided by asynchronous transfer mode (ATM). For the huge existing investment in current IP networks such as the Internet to remain useful, one must devise mechanisms to carry IP traffic over ATM networks. A fundamental issue is to devise holding policies for virtual circuits carrying datagrams. The authors consider two pricing schemes, the first is a likely pricing scheme of future ATM networks, while the second is based on characteristics of current networks. For each pricing scheme, the authors devise a simple holding policy that adapts to the characteristics of the IP traffic. The authors simulate their policies on actual network traffic and find that they perform significantly better than previous policies.