Performance and dependability modeling of some switched network applications
Steven W. Hunter · 1997
The purpose of this thesis is to study existing techniques used to characterize and model high-speed networks and to develop new models that are relevant to the design of ATM systems. While performance modeling and analysis of such systems has been somewhat common, dependability modeling is also important. In fact, both become jointly important as scalability and redundancy issues receive more attention. The reason for the increased interest in these areas is due to the wide variety of applications that will exist on ATM networks. Some of these applications will include: email, file transfer, voice, and video, with each having specific requirements. These requirements must be taken into consideration as an ATM system is being designed. As part of the introduction, a possible design process is given in order to show how such requirements can be included. This is followed by common tools and techniques used for modeling systems. As background, overviews of stochastic processes, traffic characterization, and performance modeling techniques are included. These chapters are followed by the study of performance issues of networking applications, such as the analysis of performance data from ATM and switched LAN products in Chapter 5, and the modeling and analysis of a switched network access node in Chapter 6. Similar to the chapters on performance issues, the subject of network dependability is covered in Chapter 7 by demonstrating how a client/server application implemented over an ATM network can have different dependability characteristics with varying network topologies. This is followed in Chapter 8 with the combination of performance and dependability into models of a switched network application.