Performance evaluation of strategies for integration of elastic and stream traffic

This paper deals with the integration of `stream' traffic and `elastic' traffic in one single network, e.g. an ATM-based or an IP-based network. Here stream traffic refers to traffic with a certain bandwidth guarantee, whereas elastic traffic flows can adapt their rates to the link bandwidth left over by the stream flows. First, models are developed that describe different strategies for sharing link capacities between the stream and elastic flows. Then we give mathematical methods for obtaining performance measures, in particular call blocking probabilities and file transfer delays. Finally, these methods are used for assessing and comparing the efficiency gains achieved by the integration strategies.