| Computer networks must accommodate a wide variety of applications. Many of these applications require certain Quality of Service (QoS) guarantees for their proper operation. QoS guarantees include bounds on the packet delay, delay variation and loss rate. These guarantees can be provided through the allocation of network resources. Two important resource allocation issues are addressed in this thesis. First, methods are needed to reduce the amount of resources and renegotiations required to provide a desired QoS. Second, network administrators are interested in allocating and managing resources to all users in an efficient and fair manner.; Determining an efficient amount of network resources that will result in a desired QoS is difficult for certain sources (multimedia), due to their unpredictable behavior and limited a priori source information. In this thesis, an allocation method called Dynamic Search Algorithm (DSA+) is introduced. DSA+ is an on-line algorithm that dynamically adjusts the resource allocation based upon the measured QoS. Advantages of DSA + include efficient use of resources, few renegotiations, reasonable implementation cost, and stringent QoS control. The ability of DSA+ to allocate bandwidth to meet a desired cell loss probability is investigated and analyzed via simulation using generated (MMBP) and actual MPEG-compressed videos. Advantages of DSA+ over other allocation methods, the robustness to initial parameter selection and the ability to allocate for multiple hop connections are presented.; Network managers seek to allocate resources, to all users, in an efficient and fair manner. In this thesis, microeconomic-based allocation techniques are introduced that model the network as an economy, consisting of multiple competitive markets. Two different types of markets are used to allocate resources: the spot market and the reservation market. The reservation market provides users the advantage of bandwidth ownership over a period of time, while the bandwidth sold in the spot market has the advantage of immediate availability (no reservation overhead). Proofs of microeconomic and computer network measures of fairness are presented, as well as price stability. The performance of these resource allocation methods are also investigated and analyzed using simulations with various network configurations and actual MPEG-compressed videos. |
