| A new service quality paradigm is required for emerging public networks. Data packet technology will likely displace circuit switching at all points in public network infrastructure including access over the "last mile.";Call blocking, the traditional measure of proper network engineering, cannot be extended to the domain of packet communications. Instead, this research suggests using packet loss due to buffer overflow at switching nodes as the key indicator of communications failure.;We provide an intellectual lever along the lines of traditional Erlang traffic analysis and tables to assess the relationship between network configuration and buffer overflow. A series of nomographs captures the essence of this relationship and its underlying analytical model.;This research is organized around the principles of interconnection and interoperability, proposed by the National Research Council as the general failure modes of the emerging public data network. The basis for the buffer overflow model is work by Anick, Mitra, and Sondhi. This research provides ten guidelines for network design, including buffer overflow nomographs, that are intended to be useful to the regulatory community as well as network providers. |
