Adaptive time slot: a scheduling scheme for ATM end points

A new scheduling scheme called the adaptive time slot (ATS) is described. The ATS scheme can be used at an end point host for shaping the traffic on individual virtual channels whilst multiplexing them on to a common asynchronous transfer mode (ATM) link. The traffic parameters for a wide variety of traffic classes can be accommodated while achieving high link utilization levels. The virtual channels can be grouped in to multiple priority levels. The cell spacing can be changed at every schedule time. Specific techniques to handle the constant bit rate (CBR) and low latency traffic have been developed. The ATS scheme is easy to implement in both hardware and firmware. Due to the low memory requirements the scheme is suited for integration in silicon. The scheme was tested by simulation.