Use of Approximation Methods in the Analysis of Communication Networks with Heterogeneous Traffic

The Convergence of various classes of traffic in modern Telecommunication networks has significantly increased the complexity of performance analysis of such networks. Exact solutions being computationally intractable, it is of importance to have analytical approximations that can be used in various key aspects of such networks such as control of traffic and optimization of resources. This paper looks at various approximation techniques used in the past and in particular a Decomposition Approximation that is valid when heterogeneous traffic are utilizing shared resources or channels, where the holding times of the traffic vary greatly. This paper briefly describes the basic approach of this method and gives examples of the use of such approximation techniques. Future applications of this method are also given where this method could be usefully applied.