Adaptation of the ERICA algorithm to HFC networks

This paper presents an adaptation of the ERICA and ERICA+ algorithms for HFC (hybrid fibre coaxial) networks. It is derived analytically, and confirmed by simulations, that the admission rate at which new sources can begin to transmit is a time independent constant, that depends only on the total available bandwidth and on the number of data cells between two consecutive RM cells. For low bandwidth values, this admission rate implies high access latencies. This occurs if we rely only on the congestion avoidance and fairness achievement computations of ERICA. A new procedure is proposed in order to cope with this limitation, which reduces substantially the access latencies and the maximum burst transfer delay. Simulations results both with continuous and with bursty sources are presented. A study and simulation of interactive bursty traffic is also presented.