Resource allocation for multimedia traffic flows using rate variance envelopes

Abstract.

In order for networks to support the delay and loss requirements of interactive multimedia applications, resource management algorithms are needed that efficiently allocate network resources. In this paper, we introduce a new resource allocation scheme based on rate variance envelopes. Such envelopes capture a flow's burstiness properties and autocorrelation structure by characterizing the variance of its rate distribution over intervals of different length. From this traffic characterization, we develop a simple and efficient resource allocation algorithm for static priority schedulers by employing a Gaussian approximation over intervals and considering a maximal busy period. Our approach supports heterogeneous quality-of-service requirements via our consideration of prioritized service disciplines, and supports heterogeneous and bursty traffic flows via our general framework of traffic envelopes. To evaluate the scheme, we perform trace-driven simulation experiments with long traces of compressed video and show that our approach is accurate enough to capture most of the available statistical multiplexing gain, achieving average network utilizations of up to 90% for these traces and substantially outperforming alternate schemes.