4/1/2013 10:23

Rivier College CS575: Advanced LANs

ATM Traffic Management

CS575

ATM Technology: Traffic Management

4/1/2013 10:23

Overview
0 Why Traffic Management?

0 Network Congestion
0 Effects of Network Congestion

0 Traffic Parameters 0 ATM Service Categories

0 Quality of Service (QoS)

0 Quality of Service (QoS) Parameters 0 Traffic Contract 0 Traffic Control Functions
Jain

0 Usage Parameter Control

0 Packet Discarding

CS575

ATM Technology: Traffic Management

4/1/2013 10:23

Why Traffic Management?

0 The ATM technology is intended to support a wide variety of services and

applications such as voice, video, and data

0 ATM promises to support all these different requirements with a common

network
0 Within such a network all connections may impact on each other
0 ATM must manage traffic fairly and provide effective allocation of network

resources for these different applications

0 It is the task of ATM traffic control to:

- protect the network and the end-systems from congestion in order to provide specified and guaranteed levels of Quality of Service (QoS) - use available network resources efficiently

CS575

ATM Technology: Traffic Management

4/1/2013 10:23

Network Congestion
0 Network congestion is a state when the network cannot meet the negotiated

network performance objectives for established connections or for new connection requests
0 Network congestion can be caused by:

- Unpredictable statistical fluctuation of traffic flows

- Fault conditions within the network
0 ATM layer traffic control is a set of actions taken by the network to avoid

network congestion
0 Traffic control takes measures to adapt to unpredictable fluctuations in

traffic flows and other problems within the network.

0 ATM layer congestion control refers to the set of actions taken by the

network to minimize the intensity, spread, and duration of congestion

CS575

ATM Technology: Traffic Management

4/1/2013 10:23

Effects of Network Congestion

Source: Stallings: Data and Computer Communications p316

CS575

ATM Technology: Traffic Management

4/1/2013 10:23

Traffic Parameters
0 Traffic parameters describe traffic characteristics of a connection 0 For a given connection, traffic parameters are grouped into a source traffic

descriptor
0 Traffic parameters specified in ATM Forum UNI

- Peak Cell Rate (PCR)

= An upper bound on the rate that traffic can be submit on a connection = Measured in cells/second

- Sustainable Cell Rate (SCR)

= An upper bound on the average cell rate of a burst traffic of an ATM connection = Measured in cells/second = Calculated over the duration of the connection

CS575

ATM Technology: Traffic Management

4/1/2013 10:23

Traffic Parameters (concluded)

- Maximum Burst Size (MBS) = The maximum number of cells that can be sent at the peak cell rate - Minimum Cell Rate (MCR) = The minimum number of cells that the user considers acceptable

CS575

ATM Technology: Traffic Management

4/1/2013 10:23

ATM Service Categories

0 ATM carries a wide range of heterogeneous traffic mix
0 To ensure network resources are fairly allocated for each traffic type, ATM

services are divided into different service categories

0 Each ATM service category represents a class of ATM connections that have

homogeneous characteristics in terms of traffic pattern, QoS requirements, and possible use of control mechanisms, making it suitable for a given type of resource allocation
0 The ATM Forum specifies the following five categories of services:

- CBR: Constant Bit Rate

- rt-VBR: Real-Time Variable Bit Rate

- nrt-VBR: Non-Real-Time Variable Bit Rate - UBR: Unspecified Bit Rate - ABR: Available bit Rate

CS575

ATM Technology: Traffic Management

4/1/2013 10:23

ATM Service Categories (continued)

0 All service categories apply to both VCCs and VPCs. 0 ATM services are characterized by the traffic parameters: 0 Constant Bit Rate (CBR)

- Requires a fixed amount of bandwidth continuously available during the connection lifetime - The amount of bandwidth is characterized by a Peak Cell Rate (PCR) value

CS575

ATM Technology: Traffic Management

4/1/2013 10:23

10

ATM Service Categories (continued)

- The source can transmit cells at the PCR at any time and for any duration - Intended to support real-time applications - Requires tightly constrained delay and delay variation

- Application examples: interactive (real-time) voice, video, and circuit emulation

0 Real-Time Variable Bit Rate (rt-VBR)

- Intended for real-time applications

- Requires tightly constrained delay and delay variation

- Characterized by a PCR, Sustainable Cell Rate (SCR), and Maximum Burst Size (MBS) - The source may transmit bursty traffic, e.g., Motion JPEG or MPEG compressed video

CS575

ATM Technology: Traffic Management

10

4/1/2013 10:23

11

ATM Service Architecture (continued)

- Application Example: native ATM voice with compression, interactive (real-time) compressed video (videoconferencing), and other types of multimedia communications

CS575

ATM Technology: Traffic Management

11

4/1/2013 10:23

12

ATM Service Categories (continued)

0 Non-Real-Time Varible Bit Rate (nrt-VBR)

- Intended for non-real-time applications - Source transmits bursty traffic - Characterized by a PCR, SCR, and MBS - Requires low Cell Loss Ratio (CLR) - May support statistical multiplexing of connections - No delay bounds are associated with this service category - Application Example: Critical response time transaction processing such as airline reservations, banking transactions, processing monitoring

CS575

ATM Technology: Traffic Management

12

4/1/2013 10:23

13

ATM Service Categories (continued)

0 Unspecified Bit Rate (UBR)

- Intended for non-real-time, bursty applications - Does not specify traffic related service guarantees - No commitment is made about cell transfer delay - No commitment is made as to cell loss ratio experienced by cells on the connection - Best effort service - Application example: E-mail, LAN traffic, and TCP/IP traffic
0 Available Bit Rate (ABR)

- Intended for bursty traffic whose bandwidth range is known roughly - End system specifies maximum required bandwidth (PCR) and minimum usable bandwidth (MCR)

CS575

ATM Technology: Traffic Management

13

4/1/2013 10:23

14

ATM Service Categories (continued)

- The cell rate provided by the network can change throughout the connection

- The user gets whats available

CS575 ATM Technology: Traffic Management 14

4/1/2013 10:23

15

ATM Service Categories (continued)

- The goal is to provide rapid access to unused network bandwidth at up to PCR whenever the network bandwidth is available - Cell loss ratio is minimal provided that the user adapts to the networks feedback controls

- Intended for non-real-time applications

- Application example: file transfer, browsing the Web - No numeric commitment is made about cell transfer delay - Flow control mechanism specified

- A rate-based service specified by the ATM Forum

- Flow control model = A source generates forward Resource Management cells (RM-cells) = RM-cells are turned around by the destination as backward RM-cells

CS575

ATM Technology: Traffic Management

15

4/1/2013 10:23

16

ATM Service Categories (concluded)

= Backward RM-cells carry feedback information provided by the network and/or destination to the source - The source performs dynamic traffic shaping based on feedback received from the network

unspecified bit-rate and

CS575

ATM Technology: Traffic Management

16

4/1/2013 10:23

17

Quality of Service (QoS)

0 QoS is a set of user-perceivable performance parameters that characterize

the traffic over an ATM connection

0 Defined on an end-to-end basis 0 User requests a QoS class for an ATM connection

0 The requested QoS class is a part of the traffic contract

0 The network commits to meet the requested QoS as long as the user complies

with the traffic contract

0 ATM Forum QoS Classes
QoS Class
0 1 2 3 4

QoS Parameters
Unspecified Specified Specified Specified Specified

Application
Best Effort, At Risk Circuit Emulation, CBR VBR Video/Audio Connection-Oriented Data Conectionless Data

CS575

ATM Technology: Traffic Management

17

4/1/2013 10:23

18

Quality of Service (QoS) Parameters

0 QoS parameters describe the level of service for each connection 0 ATM Forum specified six QoS parameters 0 Through the use of network signaling to establish an ATM connection, three

of these may be negotiated between the end-system and the network

- Peak-to-peak Cell Delay Variation (peak-to-peak CDV)

- Maximum Cell Transfer Delay (maxCTD) - Cell Loss Ratio (CLR)

CS575

ATM Technology: Traffic Management

18

4/1/2013 10:23

19

Quality of Service (QoS) Parameters (continued)

Cell Transfer Delay Probability Density Model

Source: ATM Forum Traffic Management Specification Version 4.0

CS575

ATM Technology: Traffic Management

19

4/1/2013 10:23

20

Quality of Service (QoS) Parameters (continued)

0 Peak-to-peak Cell Delay Variation (peak-to-peak CDV)

- Cell delay variation (CDV) is defined as a measure of cell clumping - It is how much more closely the cells are spaced than the nominal interval

- Cells may be sent into the network evenly spaced, a variety of factors may contribute to cell clamping or gaps in the cell stream
- If the network cannot properly control CDV, distortion can occur for real-time services such as voice, video, and multimedia applications - If cells arrive too closely together, cell buffers may overflow - Subscribers of CBR or VBR services need to specify this parameter

CS575

ATM Technology: Traffic Management

20

4/1/2013 10:23

21

Quality of Service (QoS) Parameters (continued)

0 Maximum Cell Transfer Delay (maxCTD)

- CTD is the elapsed time between a cells exit at the source and its entry at the destination - It includes both node processing and internode transmission time

- Subscribers of CBR or VBR services need to specify this parameter

0 Cell Loss Ratio (CLR)

- CLR = (Lost Cells) / (Total Transmitted Cells) - Cells may be lost due to

= network malfunction
= discarded for noncompliance = discarded in response to network congestion

CS575

ATM Technology: Traffic Management

21

4/1/2013 10:23

22

Quality of Service (QoS) Parameters (concluded)

0 Higher values of cell loss is dominated by the effects of queuing strategy and

buffer sizes
0 Delay, delay variation, and cell loss are impacted by buffer size and

buffering strategy
0 The error rate is determined by fiber transmission characteristics

CS575

ATM Technology: Traffic Management

22

4/1/2013 10:23

23

Traffic Contract
0 Agreement between user and network across UNI regarding:

- The QoS that a network is expected to provide - The Connection Traffic Descriptor, which includes = Source Traffic Descriptor = Cell Delay Variation Tolerance (CDVT) = Conformance Definition - Source Traffic Descriptor
Traffic Contract

= Defines the characteristics of ATM traffic coming into the network

= Includes several negotiable traffic parameters: PCR, SCR, MBS, and Burst Tolerance (BT) = Specifies flow for CLP = 0 and/or CLP = 0 + 1

- Cell Delay Variation Tolerance (CDVT)

= The upper bound on the cell clumping measure is CDVT

CS575

ATM Technology: Traffic Management

23

4/1/2013 10:23

24

Traffic Contract (continued)

= It is the measure of how much cell clumping is acceptable resulting from network operations such as cell multiplexing or the insertion of OAM cells = CDVT controls the amount of variability acceptable using a leaky bucket algorithm - Conformance Definition = Defines what cell rates and streams will be monitored = Defines the checking rule used to interpret the traffic parameters = Defines the networks definition of a compliant connection, i.e., what constitutes obeying the rules = Conformance is determined by the Usage Parameter control (UPC) at the ingress to the network

CS575

ATM Technology: Traffic Management

24

4/1/2013 10:23

25

Traffic Contract (concluded)

0 A separate traffic contract for each Virtual Path Connection (VPC) or

Virtual Channel Connection (VCC)

0 Negotiated at connection time

- Signaling message for SVC

- Circuit provision for PVC

CS575

ATM Technology: Traffic Management

25

4/1/2013 10:23

26

Traffic Control Functions

0 Connection Admission Control (CAC) 0 Usage Parameter Control (UPC) 0 Selective cell discarding 0 Traffic Shaping 0 Explicit Forward Congestion Indication (EFCI) 0 Cell Loss Priority Control 0 Network Resource Management (NRM) 0 Frame discard

0 ABR Flow Control

0 Others

CS575

ATM Technology: Traffic Management

26

4/1/2013 10:23

27

Connection Admission Control

0 Responsible for determining whether a connection request is admitted or

denied
0 For each connection request, CAC derives the following information from

the traffic contract

- Values of parameters in the source traffic descriptor

- The requested and acceptable values of each QoS parameter and the requested QoS class - The value of the CDVT - The requested conformance definition - Based on that information and the networks definition of a compliant connection to determine = Whether the connection can be accepted or not = The traffic parameters needed by UPC = Allocation of network resource
CS575 ATM Technology: Traffic Management 27

4/1/2013 10:23

28

Usage Parameter Control

0 What is UPC

- Commonly known as Traffic Policing - A network traffic control mechanism - Required at the public UNI - Detects and stops user traffic violations - Ensures QoS for other connections
0 UPC Functions

- Monitors cells submitted at the UNI

- Checks for connection compliance

= Is the user sending data too quickly? = Is the user obeying the traffic contract? - Checks validity of VPI/VCI values

= Is the user using the correct VPI/VCI?

CS575 ATM Technology: Traffic Management 28

4/1/2013 10:23

29

Usage Parameter Control (continued)

0 UPC Action

- For non-conforming cells = Discard or = Tag as low priority (overwriting CLP bit to 1) - For conforming cells = Transparently pass or = Traffic shape

CS575

ATM Technology: Traffic Management

29

4/1/2013 10:23

30

Usage Parameter Control (continued)

Discard cell

No Yes 0 Yes Yes Conform to SCR/BT CLP = 0

In

Valid VPI/VCI

Conform to PCR/CDV CLP = 0+1

CLP

Out

1 No No Conform to SCR/BT CLP = 1 No Yes

Discard cell

Discard cell

Discard cell

CS575

ATM Technology: Traffic Management

30

4/1/2013 10:23

31

Usage Parameter Control (continued) Generic Cell Rate Algorithm

0 Used to define conformance with respect to the traffic contract 0 For each cell arrival, GCRA determines whether the cell conforms to the

traffic contract of the connection

0 The UPC function may implement GCRA to enforce conformance

0 Equivalent representations of the GCRA

- Continuous-State Leaky Bucket Algorithm - Virtual Scheduling algorithm

CS575

ATM Technology: Traffic Management

31

4/1/2013 10:23

32

Usage Parameter Control (concluded) Equivalent Versions of GCRA

Arrival of a cell k at time ta(k)
TAT: Theoretical Arrival Time ta(k): Time of arrival of a cell Yes TAT < ta(k) ? Yes No TAT = ta (k) X < 0 ? No Non Conforming Cell Yes TAT > ta(k) + L ? Non Conforming Cell Ye s N o X = 0 X > L ?

X = X - (t a(k) - LCT)

No TAT = TAT + I Conforming Cell

X = X + I LCT = ta(k) Conforming Cell

Virtual Scheduling Algorithm

Continuous-State Leaky Bucket Algorithm

32

CS575

ATM Technology: Traffic Management

4/1/2013 10:23

33

Selective Cell Discard and EFCI

0 Selective Cell discard

- A congested network may selectively discard cells which meet either or both the following conditions: = Cells which belong to a non-compliant ATM connection

= Cells which have CLP = 1

- This is to protect the CLP = 0 flow as much as possible
0 Explicit Forward congestion Indication (EFCI)

- A network element in an impending congested state or a congested state may set an EFCI in the cell header - This indication may be examined by the destination end-system - The end-system may adaptively lower the cell rate of the connection

CS575

ATM Technology: Traffic Management

33

4/1/2013 10:23

34

Traffic Shaping
0 A mechanism that alters the traffic characteristics of a cell stream on a

connection to achieve better network efficiency or to ensure conformance to the traffic parameters in the traffic contract
0 Traffic shaping examples:

- Peak cell rate reduction

- Burst length limiting - Spacing cells in time to reduce CDV - Cell scheduling policy

CS575

ATM Technology: Traffic Management

34

4/1/2013 10:23

35

Resource Management
0 Resource Management

- Two critical resources = Buffer space = Trunk bandwidth - One way of simplifying the management of the trunk bandwidth is through the use of virtual paths = If every node in a network is interconnected by a VPC, then only the total available entry-to-exit VPC bandwidth need be considered in CAC decisions = A VPC is easier to manage as a larger aggregate than multiple, individual VCCs

CS575

ATM Technology: Traffic Management

35

4/1/2013 10:23

36

Packet Discarding
0 The ATM Adaptation Layer (AAL) segments higher layer packets into small

fixed-size cells for transporting over the ATM network

0 A cell discarded by a switch causes the loss of the entire packet and

eventually requires end-to-end error recovery through packet retransmission

0 A small congestion problem could potentially escalate to a more serious one 0 To prevent congestion escalation, Early Packet Discard (EPD) and Partial

Packet Discard (PPD) can be used to discard cells on a packet basis

0 EPD and PPD are applied for ABR and UBR traffic of AAL-5 connections 0 EPD

- When congestion occurs and buffers are filling, EPD discards all cells associated with a new packet arriving at a queue

CS575

ATM Technology: Traffic Management

36

4/1/2013 10:23

37

Packet Discarding (continued)

- The remaining buffer space can then be used for cells belonging to packets that already have entered the queue - EPD maximizes the chances for already queued packets to leave the queue successfully
0 PPD

- If EPD does not remove congestion and cells arriving at a queue have to be discarded because of buffer overflow PPD is applied - PPD discards all subsequent cells associated with the same packet rather than just a few cells within the packet during buffer overflow - PPD minimizes the number of packets becoming invalid in the queue

CS575

ATM Technology: Traffic Management

37

4/1/2013 10:23

38

Packet Discarding (concluded)

Source: Newbridge White Paper

CS575

ATM Technology: Traffic Management

38

4/1/2013 10:23

39

References
W. Stalling, Local and Metropolitan Area Networks, 6th edition, Prentice Hall, 2000, Chapter 11

W. Stalling, Data and Computer Communications, 6th edition, Prentice Hall, 2002, Chapters 11-12

A. Wu, Advanced Local Area Networks, Lectures & Slides, Rivier College, 2001.

CS575

ATM Technology: Traffic Management

39