A Linear Control Approach to ATM Congestion Control

Asynchronous transfer mode (ATM) is a networking protocol intended to support applications with a variety of different service requirements. Traffic management is needed to ensure that the network's resources are not overloaded and that the traffic receives its desired service. One proposed method of traffic management for non-real time, data traffic is 'rate based' congestion control. In this approach the network feeds back congestion information to the data sources, which then modify their transmission rates accordingly. This thesis addresses the rate based congestion control framework used for ATM networks, and specifically looks at rate based congestion control from the perspective of linear control theory. Simple congestion control algorithms are developed and the trade-offs inherent in such schemes are analyzed. Thesis Supervisor: Charles E. Rohrs Title: Visiting Scientist, MIT & Research Fellow, Tellabs, Inc.