Multipoint-to-point ABR service in ATM networks

Efficient support for scalable multipoint-to-multipoint (mpt-mpt) communication in ATM has recently become a hot topic of discussion at the ATM Forum. Previously, we presented a new class of efficient switch algorithms for point-to-multipoint (pt-mpt) ABR service that deliver high performance in terms of fairness and link utilization and are significantly simpler to implement than other proposed protocols. However, the more challenging problem of providing bidirectional mpt-mpt ABR service has not been addressed before. While a number of key issues have been resolved in unidirectional pt-mpt ABR service, no satisfactory solution for multipoint-point (mpt-pt) ABR service is known. In this paper, we propose new efficient mpt-pt ABR mechanisms that can interoperate with existing standards for ABR service and provide a truly transparent and scalable solution to multipoint communication in ATM. We present simulation results to illustrate that our proposed ABR schemes provide high link utilization and fair bandwidth allocation in a mpt-pt connection for heterogeneous sources with different data rates.