AbstractConsider a switching component in a packet switching network, where messages from several incoming channels arrive and are routed to appropriate outgoing port according to a service policy. One requirement in the design of such a system is to determine the buffer storage necessary at the input of each channel and the policy for serving these buffers which will prevent buffer overflow and the corresponding loss of messages. In this paper a class of buffer service policies, called Least Time to Reach Bound (LTRB), is introduced that guarantees no overflow, and for which the buffer size required at each input channel is independent of the number of channels and their relative speeds. Further, the storage requirement is only twice the maximal length of a message in all cases, and as a consequence the class is shown to be optimal in the sense that any nonoverflowing policy requires at least as much storage as LTRB. Copyright 1995 by ACM, Inc.
The abstract is also available as a LaTeX file, a DVI file, or a PostScript file.
Categories and Subject Descriptors: C.2.1 [Computer-Communication Networks]: Network Architecture and Design -- packet networks; C.4 [Performance of Systems] -- performance attributes; D.4.4 [Operating Systems]: Communications Management -- buffering; D.4.8 [Operating Systems]: Performance -- queueing theory
General Terms: Algorithms, Design, Performance
Additional Key Words and Phrases: Buffer overflow, gradual input, multiplexor, parallel queues, service discipline, switch
Selected references
- Albert G. Greenberg and Neal Madras. How fair is fair queuing? Journal of the ACM, 39(3):568-598, July 1992.