Simulation modelling for performance comparison of cell-based access networks

A comparative study of the Distributed Queue Dual Bus (DQDB) and ATM Passiv e Optical Networks (APONs) is presented with emphasis on their application as access multiplexers to B-ISDN, offering traffic concentration and resour ce sharing. In this capacity, their performance impacts greatly on the qual ity of the demanding broadband services. This study is based on computer si mulation using a novel modelling solution allowing the simulation to be dis tributed among a few workstations interconnected via a TCP/IP LAN. The perf ormance comparison shows that DQDB offers lower Cell Delay Variation (CDV) and much lower mean delay although not equally well-bounded. This makes it a prominent candidate for the access role of customers requiring a high deg ree of quality. On the other hand, the APON, which was introduced with an a im to share the medium and the Optical Line Terminator (OLT) transceiver am ong a cluster of customers, presents a slightly worse but also acceptable p erformance in comparison with DQDB.