Flexible scheme for admission control of multimedia streams on integrated networks

An admission control method for admitting a connection request to a network, the network includes a plurality of nodes interconnected by links, each of the nodes having at least one queue associated with each of the links, said method comprising the steps of:

• (a) inducing pseudo traffic into a plurality of the queues associated with the links, but not on the links themselves;
• (b) subsequently measuring performance parameters of the queues;
• and
• (c) determining whether to admit the connection request based on the measured performance parameters.

A network node for an integrated network, comprising:

• a connection circuit for passing traffic by operatively connecting an incoming link to an outgoing link;
• a pseudo traffic controller for supplying pseudo traffic;
• a first queue, operatively connected to said connection circuit and said pseudo traffic controller, for queuing the pseudo traffic and real-time traffic;
• and
• a performance parameter prediction unit, operatively connected to said first queue, for predicting a performance parameter of said first queue,
• wherein said connection circuit transmits the real-time traffic output from said first queue and discards the pseudo traffic output from said first queue.

An admission control system for controlling admission of an additional connection to an integrated network, a connection request for the admission of the additional connection to the integrated network includes an end-to-end performance bound requirement, the integrated network having a plurality of nodes interconnected by links, each of the nodes having at least one queue associated with each of its outgoing links, said system comprising:

• link-level admission control means for monitoring available network resources, said link-level admission control means including at least
• means for inducing pseudo traffic into the queue of each of the outgoing links, but not on the links themselves,
• means for measuring a performance parameter of the queue for each of the outgoing links, and
• means for determining whether each of the outgoing links can handle the additional connection based on the measured performance parameters;
• and
• network-level admission control means for deciding whether to accept or reject the additional connection, said network-level admission control means including at least
• means for determining a potential path for the connection request in accordance with the measured performance parameters and the end-to-end performance bound requirement of the connection request,
• means for determining a sum of the measured performance parameters for each of the outgoing link in the potential path, and
• means for accepting the additional connection along the potential path when the sum of the measured performance parameters is not more than the end-to-end performance bound requirement of the connection request.

An integrated network, comprising:

• a plurality of nodes interconnected by links, each of the nodes having at least one queue associated with each of the links for temporarily storing real-time traffic for the respective link;
• means for inducing pseudo traffic into the queues associated with each of the links, but not on the links themselves;
• and
• congestion detection means for measuring performance of the queues to proactively predict congestion of the links.