Analysis of rate-based congestion control algorithms for ATM networks. Part 2. Initial transient state analysis

Rate-based congestion control is effective and still simple for traffic management in ATM networks. As one of practical realization schemes, enhanced proportional rate control algorithm (EPRCA) has recently been proposed and adopted as a standard by the ATM Forum. While EPRCA can offer a desirable feature in steady state, the queue length considerably grows when the active number of connections on the link becomes large, which is so called a "large VC's problem". In particular, when the large number of VCs starts cell transmission at the same time, the rate-control does not work well. We present an analytic result to give a deep insight into this problem for three types of switches suggested in EPRCA. Further, we demonstrate that a prioritized switch which can limit a maximum queue length at an appropriate level.