Rate-Controlled Static-Priority Queueing

We propose a new service discipline, called the RateControlled Static-Priority (RCSP) queueing discipline, that can provide throughput, delay, delay jitter, and loss free guarantees in a connection-oriented packet-switching network. Previously proposed solutions are based on either a time-framing strategy, or a sorted priority queue mechanism. Time-framing schemes suffer from the dependencies they introduce between the queueing delay and the granularity of bandwidth allocation; sorted priority queues are more complex, and may be difficult to implement. The proposed RCSP queueing discipline avoids both time-framing and sorted priority queues; it achieves flexibility in the allocation of delay and bandwidth, as well as simplicity of implementation. The key idea is to separate rate-control and delay-control functions in the design of the server. Applying this separation of functions will result in a class of service disciplines, of which RCSP is an instance.