Guaranteeing Performance for Real-Time Communication in Wide-Area Networks

The increasing importance of distributed multimedia applications and the emergence of user interfaces based on digital audio and digital video will soon require that computer communication networks offer real-time services. This paper argues that the feasibility of providing performance guarantees in a wide-area network should be investigated, and describes a possible approach. We present a model of the network to be studied, and discuss its generality, as well as the presumable limits to its validity in the future. We also give a careful formulation of the problem, including a precise definition of the guarantees to be provided and a provably correct scheme for the establishment of real-time connections with deterministic, statistical, and best-effort delay bounds. This research has been supported in part by the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DoD), ARPA Order No.4871. monitored by Naval Electronic Systems Command under Contract No. N00039-84-C-0089, the University of California with a MICRO Program grant, Cray Research, Inc., Hitachi, Ltd., ffiM Corp., Ing.C.Olivetti & C., S.p.A., and the International Computer Science Institute. The views and conclusions contained in this document are those of the author, and should not be interpreted as representing official policies, either expressed or implied, of any of the sponsoring organizations or of the U.S. Government. Report Documentation Page Form Approved OMB No. 0704-0188 Public reporting burden for the collection of information is estimated to average 1 hour per response, including the time for reviewing instructions, searching existing data sources, gathering and maintaining the data needed, and completing and reviewing the collection of information. Send comments regarding this burden estimate or any other aspect of this collection of information, including suggestions for reducing this burden, to Washington Headquarters Services, Directorate for Information Operations and Reports, 1215 Jefferson Davis Highway, Suite 1204, Arlington VA 22202-4302. Respondents should be aware that notwithstanding any other provision of law, no person shall be subject to a penalty for failing to comply with a collection of information if it does not display a currently valid OMB control number.