Towards precision tools for ATM network design, dimensioning and management

It is a critical issue in network dimensioning that the characterization of traffic at the call level should be accurate enough to provide the designer with reliable tools for dimensioning the transmission and switching capacities. Since in B-ISDN the nature of traffic is expected to be very different from traditional telephone traffic with much more complex features, therefore, new methods are needed to provide a satisfactory description. In this paper we present an approach that characterizes the traffic demand at the call level in a refined way, namely, by using a two-parameter description instead of the traditional one-parameter characterization. This approach contributes to the more accurate description of traffic demands at the call level, in order to provide the network designer and manager with precision tools to handle traffic demands and their consequences in dimensioning and related issues, while retaining simplicity, algorithmic feasibility and practical applicability.