Performance Analysis of Scheduling Disciplines Using OPNET

Resource allocation mechanisms require that routers execute a scheduling discipline that manages buffering of packets during waiting time. Various scheduling algorithms may be implemented to govern packet transmission and control packet loss. Volume of UDP traffic is dramatically increasing due to the widely used P2P and steaming technologies. Unlike TCP, UDP protocol does not have mechanism to control congestion. UDP traffic easily congests network links and causes unfair packet transmission or loss. We use OPNET Modeler to analyze three queuing mechanisms: first-in-first-out (FIFO), priority queuing (PQ), and weighted-fair queuing (WFQ). Various simulation scenarios are designed to compare their performance. 1. Introduction Scheduling disciplines play a significant role in the performance of networks since they are responsible for distributing the network resources fairly [1]. They also guarantee performance of critical services such as voice and interactive multi-participant applications.