Performance measurements and traffic characterization on the ATM pilot network
Jean‐Raymond Louvion, Benoit Piller · European Transactions on Telecommunications · 1996
Abstract From mid‐94 to end‐95 the “Performance Working Group (PWG)” of the ATM PILOT has carried out a lot of measurements (in relationship to functions available on test equipments). The results obtained were mainly related to ATM layer performance measurements (availability and non time‐related performance parameters) and to traffic characterization. Performance measurements aimed at checking the validity of the set of proposed or standardized ATM layer performance parameters, at studying the sensitivity of the parameters definitions and at obtaining early results in order to propose performance objectives for the relevant recommendations. These results have shown that the ATM layer performance is very much dependent of the observation period of time and of the physical path of the connection under test. Furthermore it has been observed that the ATM layer performance is not so sensitive to the parameter definitions and the associated thresholds. Traffic characterisation is necessary to identify what is going on in the network (will the cells be equally spaced or will they come in bursts ?). The PWG had taken the opportunity to do field trials with real traffic coming from Pilot and has carried out a range of tests on both CBR sources (carrying voice or video applications) and VBR sources (multimedia application or LAN to LAN interconnection). Two main traffic types have been observed during the tests: CBR sources carrying voice or video applications. VBR sources with multimedia applications or LAN to LAN interconnection using the SMDS/‐CBDS service.