Design and analysis of the GCRA traffic shaper for VBR services in ATM networks

The proposed GCRA (Generic Cell Rate Algorithm) traffic shaper consists of a regulator and a scheduler. It can shape multiple incoming VBR (Variable Bit Rate) cell streams simultaneously to be strictly conforming according to the GCRA algorithm when the cells depart for the ATM output link. The impact of cell emission conflicts is considered and resolved by using an HDD (Earliest-Due-Date) scheduler and a feedback signal from the scheduler to the regulator. The call admission control condition and the cell delay bound are derived. Simulation results demonstrate that the output cell streams of the proposed GCRA traffic shaper do not contain any non-conforming cells and the scheduler queue size is significantly reduced. Meanwhile, the delay performance is almost not affected by the use of the feedback mechanism.