Dynamic buffer allocation in an ATM switch

Ž . Efficient and fair use of buffer space in an Asynchronous Transfer Mode ATM switch is essential to gain high throughput and low cell loss performance from the network. In this paper a shared buffer architecture associated with threshold-based virtual partition among output ports is proposed. Thresholds are updated based on traffic characteristics on each outgoing link, so as to adapt to traffic loads. The system behavior under varying traffic patterns is investigated via Ž . simulation; cell loss rate is the quality of service QoS measure used in this study. Our study shows that the threshold based dynamic buffer allocation scheme ensures a fair share of the buffer space even under bursty loading conditions. q 1999 Elsevier Science B.V. All rights reserved.