Buffer sizing in an ATM switch for both ATM and STM traffics

Specific queueing models are derived in order to size the buffers of ATM switching elements in the cases of ATM or STM multiplexed traffic. Buffering is performed either at the outputs or in a central memory for ATM multiplexed traffic; for STM multiplexed traffic, buffers can also be provided at the inputs. The buffer size is chosen in order to ensure a loss probability in the switch smaller than 10−10. It is shown that the buffer size per output in the case of central queueing is smaller than the buffer size in case of output queueing for both ATM and STM multiplexed traffics. Moreover, for STM multiplexed traffic, buffer sizes are identical for input and output queueing. Lastly, it is pointed out that buffers used for STM multiplexed traffic should be 4 to 20 times larger than the corresponding buffers for ATM multiplexed traffic.