MODELS FOR NETWORK DESIGN, SERVICING AND MONITORING OF ATM NETWORKS BASED ON THE VIRTUAL PATH CONCEPT

Virtual Path (VP) concept has gained attention in terms of effective d eployment of ATM networks for wide-area environment. In this paper, we present models and algorithms for network design and management of AT M networks based on virtual path concept from a network planning persp ective. Our approach is based on statistical multiplexing of traffic w ithin a traffic class by using a virtual path for the class and determ inistic multiplexing of different virtual paths, and on providing dyna mic bandwidth and reconfigurability through virtual path concept depen ding on traffic load during the course of the day. For some realistic example networks, we observe that considering network dynamism through variation of traffic during the course of a day by doing dynamic band width and virtual path reconfiguration can save between 10 to 14% in n etwork design costs compared to a static network based on maximum busy hour traffic.