Colin J. Parris and Domenico Ferrari

EECS Department, University of California, Berkeley

Technical Report No. UCB/CSD-94-859

, 1994

http://www2.eecs.berkeley.edu/Pubs/TechRpts/1994/CSD-94-859.pdf

The communication infrastructure of the future must provide efficient support for applications with diverse traffic characteristics and performance requirements. Currently these applications are supported using several specialized networks that accommodate the different services (e.g., cable networks for video, phone networks for voice, and so on); however, technological advancements in the fields of microelectronics and optics have made it possible to integrate these services on a single network. These Integrated Services Networks support a wide range of qualities of services to the client and provide many advantages, which include large economies of scale, increased network management capabilities, improved statistical multiplexing, and ubiquity of access. The qualities of service offered by these networks include guarantees on various performance indices for a client's specified traffic characteristics; these services are often referred to as Guaranteed Performance Communication (GPC) services. <p>These GPC services provide performance guarantees in terms of throughput, delay, delay jitter and loss rates, and adopt a connection-oriented, fixed-routing, reservation-oriented approach to achieve these guarantees. In such an approach, resource allocation and route selection decisions are made before the start of the communication on the basis of resource availability and real-time network load at that time, and are usually kept for the duration of the communication. This rather static resource management approach has certain limitations: it does not take into account (a) the dynamics of the communicating clients; (b) the dynamics of the network state; and (c) the tradeoff between quality of service and network availability, thus limiting the flexibility or adaptability of these guaranteed-performance services. In order to accommodate the dynamics of client demands and network state, it is necessary that the GPC services be flexible. <p>In this thesis, we examine this problem of flexibility of GPC services in wide-area packet-switched networks, and present a solution by proof of concept; that is, we designed a dynamic resource management scheme, analyzed its behavior through simulation experiments, and implemented a prototype of the scheme. This dynamic resource management scheme, called the Dynamic Connection Management (DCM) scheme, provides the network with the capability to dynamically modify the traffic characteristics, the performance requirements, and the routes of any existing guaranteed-performance connection. We begin this examination by providing several examples of the dynamics of the client demands and of the network state to motivate our work, and we continue with a review and critique of various proposed solutions. We then present the concept of Dynamic Connection Management and discuss its components: namely, the DCM scheme and the DCM Policies. The DCM scheme is a collection of algorithms and mechanisms that permit the runtime modification of the traffic and performance parameters, and the route of a guaranteed-performance connection. The DCM scheme is guided by high-level management policies, called the DCM policies, that determine when modification is permissible in the network and the values of the appropriate parameters to be modified. The focus of this thesis is the DCM scheme. <p>The DCM scheme is an enhancement of the Tenet GPC service; it is based on three algorithms: the DCM channel administration algorithm, the DCM transition algorithm, and the DCM routing algorithm; and it is subject to the DCM modification contract. This contract specifies the degree of disruption that a client may experience during a modification. This degree can range from no disruption to a bounded number of performance violations. The channel administration algorithm conducts the admission control tests and reserves the appropriate network resources to ensure that the performance guarantees of the modified channel are satisfied

---

BibTeX citation:

@techreport{Parris:CSD-94-859,
    Author= {Parris, Colin J. and Ferrari, Domenico},
    Title= {The Dynamic Management of Guaranteed Performance Connections in Packet Switched Integrated Service Networks},
    Year= {1994},
    Url= {http://www2.eecs.berkeley.edu/Pubs/TechRpts/1994/5881.html},
    Number= {UCB/CSD-94-859},
    Abstract= {The communication infrastructure of the future must provide efficient support for applications with diverse traffic characteristics and performance requirements. Currently these applications are supported using several specialized networks that accommodate the different services (e.g., cable networks for video, phone networks for voice, and so on); however, technological advancements in the fields of microelectronics and optics have made it possible to integrate these services on a single network. These Integrated Services Networks support a wide range of qualities of services to the client and provide many advantages, which include large economies of scale, increased network management capabilities, improved statistical multiplexing, and ubiquity of access. The qualities of service offered by these networks include guarantees on various performance indices for a client's specified traffic characteristics; these services are often referred to as Guaranteed Performance Communication (GPC) services. <p>These GPC services provide performance guarantees in terms of throughput, delay, delay jitter and loss rates, and adopt a connection-oriented, fixed-routing, reservation-oriented approach to achieve these guarantees. In such an approach, resource allocation and route selection decisions are made before the start of the communication on the basis of resource availability and real-time network load at that time, and are usually kept for the duration of the communication. This rather static resource management approach has certain limitations: it does not take into account (a) the dynamics of the communicating clients; (b) the dynamics of the network state; and (c) the tradeoff between quality of service and network availability, thus limiting the flexibility or adaptability of these guaranteed-performance services. In order to accommodate the dynamics of client demands and network state, it is necessary that the GPC services be flexible. <p>In this thesis, we examine this problem of flexibility of GPC services in wide-area packet-switched networks, and present a solution by proof of concept; that is, we designed a dynamic resource management scheme, analyzed its behavior through simulation experiments, and implemented a prototype of the scheme. This dynamic resource management scheme, called the Dynamic Connection Management (DCM) scheme, provides the network with the capability to dynamically modify the traffic characteristics, the performance requirements, and the routes of any existing guaranteed-performance connection. We begin this examination by providing several examples of the dynamics of the client demands and of the network state to motivate our work, and we continue with a review and critique of various proposed solutions. We then present the concept of Dynamic Connection Management and discuss its components: namely, the DCM scheme and the DCM Policies. The DCM scheme is a collection of algorithms and mechanisms that permit the runtime modification of the traffic and performance parameters, and the route of a guaranteed-performance connection. The DCM scheme is guided by high-level management policies, called the DCM policies, that determine when modification is permissible in the network and the values of the appropriate parameters to be modified. The focus of this thesis is the DCM scheme. <p>The DCM scheme is an enhancement of the Tenet GPC service; it is based on three algorithms: the DCM channel administration algorithm, the DCM transition algorithm, and the DCM routing algorithm; and it is subject to the DCM modification contract. This contract specifies the degree of disruption that a client may experience during a modification. This degree can range from no disruption to a bounded number of performance violations. The channel administration algorithm conducts the admission control tests and reserves the appropriate network resources to ensure that the performance guarantees of the modified channel are satisfied },
}

EndNote citation:

%0 Report
%A Parris, Colin J. 
%A Ferrari, Domenico 
%T The Dynamic Management of Guaranteed Performance Connections in Packet Switched Integrated Service Networks
%I EECS Department, University of California, Berkeley
%D 1994
%@ UCB/CSD-94-859
%U http://www2.eecs.berkeley.edu/Pubs/TechRpts/1994/5881.html
%F Parris:CSD-94-859