Backward Explicit Congestion Notification for ATM Local Area Networks

The application of Backward Explicit Congestion notification (BECN) to an ATM LAN is investigated in order to sup-port the dynamic sharing of bandwidth between high-speed, bursty, data traffic sources. The results of a simulation study are presented which suggest that a BECN mechanism may provide simple and effective traffic management for an ATM LAN or campus backbone network of up to at least 50 km diameter. Cell loss due to congestion may be prevented and a link utilization in excess of 80% may be maintained with only 0.08% of the link bandwidth, per active source, carrying backward congestion notification traffic during a congestion event.