Measurement-based Admission Control Research Articles

A coarse-grain analysis for the performance of measurement-based admission control algorithms

Network load control mechanisms have become important due to merging towards IP-packet switched networks, Fixed-Mobile Convergence (FMC) and the growing diversity of Internet applications. These applications vary in terms of size, content, time duration, and Quality of Service (QoS) requirements. These current advancements require new design criteria for traffic control mechanisms to cope with the growing complexity of future networks and the increasing diversity of network applications. Previous work on the design and performance evaluation criteria of Call Admission Control (CAC) algorithms has taken link utilization as a measure of efficient allocation of available network resources while enhancing QoS. We believe that considering only link utilization to evaluate the performance of CAC algorithms is not an accurate criterion. In this paper, we propose a simple and robust method for evaluating the performance and design considerations of CAC algorithms. The proposed approach is based on flow parameters such as call admission rate, call rejection rate, average call duration and provided QoS parameters with respect to link utilization level. This flow-based evaluation method is particularly important for optimal resource allocation, efficient service management and content-based pricing.

Improving Experience-Based Admission Control through Traffic Type Awareness

Experience-based admission control (EBAC) is a hybrid approach combining the classical parameter-based and measurement-based admission control. EBAC calculates an appropriate overbooking factor used to overbook link capacities with resource reservations in packet-switched networks. This overbooking factor correlates with the average peak-to-mean rate ratio of all admitted traffic flows on the link. So far, a single overbooking factor is calculated for the entire traffic aggregate. In this paper, we propose typespecific EBAC which provides a compound overbooking factor considering different types of traffic that subsume flows with similar peak-to-mean rate ratios. The concept can be well implemented since it does not require measurements of type-specific traffic aggregates. We give a proof of concept for this extension and compare it with the conventional EBAC approach. We show that EBAC with type-specific overbooking leads to better resource utilization under normal conditions and to faster response times for changing traffic mixes.

Predicted Sum: A Robust Measurement-Based Admission Control with Online Traffic Prediction

We present a new measurement-based admission control (MBAC) scheme with online traffic prediction, referred to as predicted sum (PS). A simple adaptive online traffic predictor based on normalized least mean squares (NLMS) algorithm is employed. Our scheme has two unique merits: (1) robustness to traffic characteristics and network environment, and (2) easy and accurate control for the provisioning of network utilization and quality-of-service. The simulation results demonstrate its significant performance enhancement over the well-known MBAC measured sum (MS) scheme

A guaranteed minimum throughput service for TCP flows using measurement-based admission control

We propose a new scheme for a network service that guarantees a minimum throughput to flows accepted by admission control (AC). The whole scheme only uses a small set of packet classes in a core-st...

Statistical admission control using delay distribution measurements

Growth of performance sensitive applications, such as voice and multimedia, has led to widespread adoption of resource virtualization by a variety of service providers (xSPs). For instance, Internet Service Providers (ISPs) increasingly differentiate their offerings by means of customized services, such as virtual private networks (VPN) with Quality of Service (QoS) guarantees or QVPNs. Similarly Storage Service Providers (SSPs) use storage area networks (SAN)/network attached storage (NAS) technology to provision virtual disks with QoS guarantees or QVDs. The key challenge faced by these xSPs is to maximize the number of virtual resource units they can support by exploiting the statistical multiplexing nature of the customers' input request load.While a number of measurement-based admission control algorithms utilize statistical multiplexing along the bandwidth dimension, they do not satisfactorily exploit statistical multiplexing along the delay dimension to guarantee distinct per-virtual-unit delay bounds. This article presents Delay Distribution Measurement (DDM) based admission control algorithm, the first measurement-based approach that effectively exploits statistical multiplexing along the delay dimension. In other words, DDM exploits the well-known fact that the actual delay experienced by most service requests (packets or disk I/O requests) for a virtual unit is usually far smaller than its worst-case delay bound requirement because multiple virtual units rarely send request bursts at the same time. Additionally, DDM supports virtual units with distinct probabilistic delay guarantees---virtual units that can tolerate more delay violations can reserve fewer resources than those that tolerate less, even though they require the same delay bound. Comprehensive trace-driven performance evaluation of QVPNs (using Voice over IP traces) and QVDs (using video stream, TPC-C, and Web search I/O traces) shows that, when compared to deterministic admission control, DDM can potentially increase the number of admitted virtual units (and resource utilization) by up to a factor of 3.

Robust Measurement-Based Admission Control Using Markov's Theory of Canonical Distributions

This paper presents models, algorithms and analysis for measurement-based admission control in network applications in which there is high uncertainty concerning source statistics. In the process it extends and unifies several recent approaches to admission control. A new class of algorithms is introduced based on results concerning Markov's canonical distributions. In addition, a new model is developed for the evolution of the number of flows in the admission control system. Performance evaluation is done through both analysis and simulation. Results show that the proposed algorithms minimize buffer-overflow probability among the class of all moment-consistent algorithms

A structural comparison of measurement-based admission control algorithms

Measurement-based admission control (MBAC) algorithm is designed for the relaxed real-time service. In contrast to traditional connection admission control mechanisms, the most attractive feature of MBAC algorithm is that it does not require a prior traffic model and that is very difficult for the user to come up with a tight traffic model before establishing a flow. Other advantages of MBAC include that it can achieve higher network utilization and offer quality service to users. In this article, the study of the equations in the MBAC shows that they can all be expressed in the same form. Based on the same form, some MBAC algorithms can achieve same performance only if they satisfy some conditions.

Stabilization of an Overloaded Queueing Network Using Measurement-Based Admission Control

Admission control can be employed to avoid congestion in queueing networks subject to overload. In distributed networks, the admission decisions are often based on imperfect measurements on the network state. In this paper, we study how the lack of complete state information affects the system performance, by considering a simple network model for distributed admission control. The stability region of the network is characterized and it is shown how feedback signaling makes the system very sensitive to its parameters.

Stabilization of an Overloaded Queueing Network Using Measurement-Based Admission Control

Admission control can be employed to avoid congestion in queueing networks subject to overload. In distributed networks, the admission decisions are often based on imperfect measurements on the network state. In this paper, we study how the lack of complete state information affects the system performance, by considering a simple network model for distributed admission control. The stability region of the network is characterized and it is shown how feedback signaling makes the system very sensitive to its parameters.

Adaptive connection admission control for differentiated services access networks

In our earlier work, we have proposed some modifications for the bandwidth broker framework. With our modifications, it is possible to use measurement-based admission control in addition to the more traditional parameter-based admission control. Moreover, we have presented a new flexible admission control scheme that has proven to be very efficient in terms of bottleneck link utilization. Two problems, however, have arisen: the use of scheduling weights in admission control and bursty connection arrivals. In this paper, we present that the former one can be dealt with the use of adaptive scheduling weights, while the latter one can be fought with adaptive reservation limits. The proposed new algorithms are validated through simulations and their performance is compared against the nonadaptive basic scheme.

A network-attached storage system supporting guaranteed QoS

We propose a network-attached storage system that can support guaranteed Quality of Service (QoS), called POPNet Storage. The special policy of date access and disk scheduling is enable users to access files quickly and directly with guaranteed QoS in the POPNet Storage. The POPNet Storage implements a measurement-based admission control algorithm (PSMBAC) to determine whether to admit a new data access request stream and admit as many requests as possible while meeting the QoS guarantees to its clients. The data reconstruction algorithms in the POPNet Storage also put more emphasis on data availability and guaranteed QoS, thus it is designed to complete the data recovery as soon as possible and at the same time provide the guaranteed QoS for high-priority data access. The experiment results show that the POP-Net Storage can provide more significant performance, reliability, and guaranteed QoS than conventional storage systems.

Fuzzy-Based Adaptive Bandwidth Control for Loss Guarantees

This paper presents the use of adaptive bandwidth control (ABC) for a quantitative packet loss rate guarantee to aggregate traffic in packet switched networks. ABC starts with some initial amount of bandwidth allocated to a queue and adjusts it over time based on online measurements of system states to ensure that the allocated bandwidth is just enough to attain the specified loss requirement. Consequently, no a priori detailed traffic information is required, making ABC more suitable for efficient aggregate quality of service (QoS) provisioning. We propose an ABC algorithm called augmented Fuzzy (A-Fuzzy) control, whereby fuzzy logic control is used to keep an average queue length at an appropriate target value, and the measured packet loss rate is used to augment the standard control to achieve better performance. An extensive simulation study based on both theoretical traffic models and real traffic traces under a wide range of system configurations demonstrates that the A-Fuzzy control itself is highly robust, yields high bandwidth utilization, and is indeed a viable alternative and improvement to static bandwidth allocation (SBA) and existing adaptive bandwidth allocation schemes. Additionally, we develop a simple and efficient measurement-based admission control procedure which limits the amount of input traffic in order to maintain the performance of the A-Fuzzy control at an acceptable level.

Scalable QoS Assurances with Measurement-Based Admission Control

Among recent trends in Quality of Service (QoS) provisioning in the Internet is the Differentiated Services Architecture, termed DiffServ. The successful deployment of Diffserv to provide a premium QoS guarantees to network traffic requires an effective admission control mechanism, which needs to be scalable and relatively simple to implement. In this paper we present a QoS network framework with novel and effective measurement-based resource management and admission control mechanisms. The mechanism is based on the characteristics of measured arrival and departure traffic. Those characteristics are captured via a passive monitoring. We implement the mechanism at the edge routers of a DiffServ Domain. The admission control mechanism is only executed at the edge routers and doesn't require any signaling between inner routers. The mechanism does not depend on the underlying network topology or any specifications of the cross traffic present in the domain. Therefore the mechanism is scalable. In addition, the proposed approach does not require any traffic policing mechanism at the entrance of the network. This approach can provide the statistical QoS guarantees to a variety of service classes within a DiffServ domain. We show that the proposed framework can provide a high degree of network resource sharing among multiple traffic classes while satisfying their QoS requirements. To evaluate the effectiveness of the proposed framework, we perform a set of simulations on a number of bursty video traffic sources.

AC algorithms in AQUILA QoS IP network

AbstractThis paper presents the admission control (AC) algorithms that are implemented in the prototype multi‐service AQUILA QoS IP network 4. The discussed algorithms were developed for regulating traffic submitted to network services (NS) dedicated for handling: (1) real‐time streaming traffic of variable bit rate (VBR) type and (2) elastic traffic, produced by greedy TCP sources. For the former NS, named Premium VBR, the measurement‐based AC (MBAC) scheme is proposed. The applied approach employs the well‐known Hoeffding bound formula 2 for calculating required link capacity to assure packet loss ratio at a predefined level. Moreover, this method is supported by the declarations about the peak bit rate as well as by the measurements of mean bit rate on aggregate flow level. For the latter NS, named premium multimedia, two alternative AC algorithms are investigated, both designed for assuring requested TCP throughput. While the first of them follows the token bucket marking (TBM) concept 12, the second one adjusts the advertised TCP window size to enable an ideal TCP behaviour (i.e. lossless packet transfer). The simulation results are included for illustrating the advantages of the discussed algorithms. Copyright © 2005 AEIT.

Measurement-based admission control in UMTS

In this paper, we develop an efficient Call Admission Control (cac) algorithm forumts systems. We first introduce the expressions that we developed for Signal-to-Interference (sir) for both uplink and downlink, to obtain a novelcac algorithm that takes into account, in addition tosir constraints, the effects of mobility, coverage as well as the wired capacity behind the base station, for the uplink, and the maximal transmission power of the base station, for the downlink. As of its implementation, we investigate the measurement-based approach as a means to predict future, both handoff and new, call arrivals and thus manage different priority levels depending on a tunable coefficient. Compared to classicalcac algorithms, ourcac mechanism achieves better performance in terms of outage probability and QoS management.

Measurement-based admission control using multiple time-scales test

A new measurement-based admission control algorithm to support Quality of Service(QoS) demand is proposed for soft real-time applications. In the algorithm, admission test is performed across Multiple Time-Scales (MTS) to accurately capture traffic fluctuation on various time-scales. By applying the QoS requirements directly to admission test, the MTS algorithm can properly meet the QoS target and maximize the bandwidth utilization.

Voice and video transmissions with global data parameter control for the IEEE 802.11e enhance distributed channel access

Best-effort data control and admission control are vital to guarantee quality of service for real-time (voice and video) transmissions in the IEEE 802.11e wireless LANs. In this paper, we propose and study a global data parameter control scheme integrated with a measurement-based admission control scheme for the IEEE 802.11e enhanced distributed channel access. In the proposed global data control scheme, the access point dynamically controls best-effort data parameters of stations globally based on traffic condition. Such a global/centralized data parameter control mechanism provides the best fairness for data transmissions among stations. In the proposed centrally-assisted distributed admission control scheme for voice and video transmissions, stations listen to available budgets from the access point to make decisions on acceptance or rejection of a voice or video stream. Such a scheme provides good differentiation among different access categories and provides good fairness among real-time streams within the same access category. The proposed mechanisms are evaluated via extensive simulations. Studies show that, with the proposed global data control scheme and the admission control scheme, quality of service can be greatly improved while maintaining a good utilization.

Toward scalable admission control for VoIP networks

We present an overview of scalable admission control in IP networks. We introduce various approaches and discuss the mechanism and characteristics of each method. In particular, we argue that end-to-end measurement based admission control (EMBAC), which employs end-to-end on-demand probing, should be used for call admission control. Second, we consider use of EMBAC in VoIP networks. We present a new probability-based EMBAC scheme and show that its performance is close to the ideal method using virtual-trunk-based admission control. We also present a QoS allocation approach for selecting an admission threshold and dimensioning link capacities. A simple network design and evaluation results suggest that this QoS allocation approach is effective to adequately dimension a network, while satisfying end-to-end targets in terms of blocking probability and packet loss rate.

Scalable Quasi-Dynamic-Provisioning-Based Admission Control Mechanism in Differentiated Service Networks

The architecture in a differentiated services (diffServ) network is based on a simple model that applies a per-class service in the core node of the network. However, because the network behavior is simple, the network structure and provisioning is complicated. If a service provider wants dynamic provisioning or a better bandwidth guarantee, the differentiated services network must use a signaling protocol with QoS parameters or an admission control method. Unfortunately, these methods increase the complexity. To overcome the problems with complexity, we investigated scalable dynamic provisioning for admission control in DiffServ networks. We propose a new scalable qDPM 2 mechanism based on a centralized bandwidth broker and distributed measurement-based admission control and movable boundary bandwidth management to support heterogeneous QoS requirements in DiffServ networks.

A measurement-based admission control algorithm for VoIP

We propose an admission control algorithm for voice over Internet protocol (VoIP) calls and present the results of an extensive performance evaluation study. The proposed algorithm operates in VoIP gateways and rejects call requests when congestion is indicated in the path to the specified destination gateway. The algorithm derives the network congestion information from the call quality reports received from the current real-time transport protocol (RTP) connections between the source and destination gateways. The performance of the algorithm has been investigated using simulation experiments and the results show very low packet loss ratios (PLRs) for the voice calls. Moreover, the call blocking ratio is very similar to that of an ideal call admission control that knows the exact number of calls at every network link. © 2003 Lucent Technologies Inc.