A number of frameworks have been developed for extending ABR traffic management algorithms to support point-to-multipoint connections. This contribution provides a comprehensive analysis of the performance of ABR traffic management for point-to-multipoint connections under a variety of conditions. The study demonstrates that the extension frameworks preserve the efficiency and fairness properties of the original point-to-point switch scheme employed. The major problem specific to point-to-multipoint connections is the consolidation noise problem, which occurs when there are distant bottlenecks on a branch of the tree. In addition, many links on the branches of a point-to-multipoint connection may be underutilized because bottlenecks exist on other branches of the tree. Resolving the consolidation noise versus slow transient response problem, and correctly setting the ABR source parameters are essential for correct operation of ABR point-to-multipoint.

Contribution in text *without* figures (55,320 bytes) | Adobe Acrobat 3.0 (3,806,801 Bytes)

Presentation slides in Adobe Acrobat format (35,215 bytes)