SOME OPTIMAL TRAFFIC REGULATION SCHEMES FOR ATM NETWORKS - A MARKOV DECISION APPROACH

In this paper, some new traffic regulation schemes are defined in term s of a relief-spacing (or spacing of the allowance for cell delivery t o the network) function. The class of open-loop traffic regulators (TR 's) is defined in terms of relief-spacing functions which depend on so me user-state; this class may be viewed as an extension of the Spacer- Controller defined in terms of some constant (user-state independent) relief-function, The optimal open-loop TR's are derived by formulating proper optimization problems and applying a Markov decision approach. Numerical results illustrate the improved performance of the optimal open-loop TR over that of the (constant relief-spacing) Spacer-Control ler. Finally, the class of closed-loop TR's is defined in terms of rel ief-spacing functions which depend on both some user- and some network - state information and its optimal element is derived. The improved p erformance under the optimal closed-loop TR over that of the optimal o pen-loop TR is illustrated and their difference determines the perform ance gain if feedback information can become available on time.