Fair packet discarding for controlling ABR traffic in ATM networks

The asynchronous transfer mode (ATM) Forum has chosen rate-based control as the flow control scheme for available bit-rate (ABR) service. However, rate-based schemes can achieve congestion control only if all users act in a cooperative manner. Even a limited number of uncooperative users can cause congestion collapse. In this paper, we propose a mechanism called fair packet discarding to provide incentives to users to participate in network congestion control so that the network can operate in a more efficient manner.