Performance evaluation of transmission schemes for real-time traffic in a high-speed timed-token MAC network

The fast development of high-speed networks makes many real-time multimedia applications possible. These applications usually involve the transmission of massive amounts of digital video data, which requires the application o f video image compression technology, under a stringent timing constraint. As a result, the transmission of the variable bit rate (VBR) traffic genera ted by the compression algorithms plays a very important role in meeting th e real-time requirement of the applications. In this paper, we analyze the characteristics of the real-time traffic generated by Moving Pictures Exper ts Group (MPEG), which is one of the most notable video image compression s tandards, and evaluate four different transmission schemes for the real-tim e VBR traffic. In order to have a deterministic behavior and bounded messag e delays, we choose the timed token medium access control (MAC) protocol fo r the evaluation of our transmission schemes. Judging from our maximum band width demand analysis, and after a series of intensive simulation experimen ts, the results reveal that in our best scenario, the performance improveme nt (PI) can be as high as 422% over the original default transmission schem e in terms of the number of video streams that can be supported in the netw ork. (C) 2000 Elsevier Science Inc. All rights reserved.