Performance evaluation of packet reassembly at an edge device in ATM-LANS

Abstract

A network interconnecting facility such as a router and a bridge may convert protocol data units passing through it. For example, ATM networks convey 53-byte fixed size cells. On the other hand, variable-length packets are transmitted on legacy LANs such as 10BASE, FDDI, and so on. Thus, an edge device at the boundary of an ATM network must perform segmentation and reassembly of packets. In this paper, we focus on packet reassembly at an edge device under the condition that interactive and noninteractive data-transfer traffics coexist. Via simulation of a queuing model, we investigate the influences of traffic load, packet length, and service priority on packet loss and delay characteristics. The result shows that one should determine the reassembly-buffer size taking into account the packet size for noninteractive service when the interactive service has high priority. Furthermore, one should determine the priority levels of both services depending on their delay characteristics when the bursty nature of the ATM traffic is reduced by flow control. © 2000 Scripta Technica, Electron Comm Jpn Pt 1, 84(1): 40–48, 2001