The call establishment process in asynchronous transfer mode (ATM) net
works can constitute a source of overload in the switches of the netwo
rk. The purpose of this paper is to use analytic modeling and simulati
on to investigate this effect. The call establishment overload can be
particularly significant when the network will contain a relatively la
rge number of switches, due to the inaccuracy of the information avail
able to the switch accepting or rejecting the call, and because of the
multiple paths which need to be assessed and then utilized to establi
sh the call. We simulate the call set-up phase of an ATM connection, i
ncluding path selection, bandwidth reservation and call rejection, and
simulate the dow of call establishment messages to estimate by simula
tion and analytically the queue lengths of call establishment processi
ng at the input, output and intermediate switches. Average usage of ba
ndwidth at the links, and the probability that a call request is rejec
ted due to insufficient capacity at some link, are measured via simula
tion and also predicted using an analytical model. Simulation results
show that if bandwidth is not reserved at input nodes, very large queu
es of call establishment jobs can build up in the switches of the netw
ork. A simplified analytical model is derived to estimate the queue le
ngths of call establishment jobs at each node of the network when adva
nced reservation with perfect information is implemented. Simulation r
esults are compared to approximate model predictions for each individu
al switching node in a 100-node (switch) ATM network model. It is show
n that the analytical model dealing with a large ATM network can quali
tatively predict the locations of queue build-up of jobs for call esta
blishment processing, with accurate queue length predictions for being
made in the case of light traffic load. The analytical model provides
a lower bound to queue lengths, and remains within the same order of
magnitude when the call request traffic is high. (C) 1997 Elsevier Sci
ence B.V.