RCBR: A Simple and Efficient Service for Multiple Time-Scale Traffic

Variable bit rate compressed video traffic is expected to be a significant component of the traffic mix in integrated services networks. This traffic is hard to manage because it has strict delay and loss requirements while simultaneously exhibiting burstiness at multiple time-scales. We show that burstiness over long time-scales, in conjunction with resource reservation using one-shot traffic descriptors, can substantially degrade the loss rate, end-to-end delay and statistical multiplexing gain of a connection. We use large-deviation theory to model the performance of multiple time-scale traffic and to motivate the design of Renegotiated Constant Bit Rate (RCBR) Service. Sources using RCBR service are presented with an abstraction of a fixed-size buffer which is drained at a constant rate. They may renegotiate the drain rate to match their workload. Because all traffic entering the network is CBR, RCBR requires minimal buffering and scheduling support in switches. We show that the service is..