Admission control for statistical QoS: Theory and practice

In networks that support quality of service, an admission control algorithm determines whether or not a new traffic flow can be admitted to the networ k such that all users will receive their required performance. Such an algo rithm is a key component of future multiservice networks because it determi nes the extent to which network resources are utilized and whether the prom ised QoS parameters are actually delivered. Our goals in this article are t hreefold. First, we describe and classify a broad set of proposed admission control algorithms. Second, we evaluate the accuracy of these algorithms v ia experiments using both on-off sources and long traces of compressed vide o; we compare the admissible regions and QoS parameters predicted by our im plementations of the algorithms with those obtained from trace-driven simul ations. Finally, we identify the key aspects of an admission control algori thm necessary for achieving a high degree of accuracy and hence a high stat istical multiplexing gain.