Nakagawa, S., Kato, Y., Nakai, S., Ogura, K., and Saito, H., "Self-sizing Network Operation Systems in ATM Networks" NOMS'96
The asynchronous transfer mode (ATM) is a key technology for broadband integrated services digital networks (B-ISDNs), which require high speed transmission. ATM network enables information access and communication among various types of multimedia equipment, which can handle visual data as well as computer data. B-ISDN services, which will require different levels of quality of service (QoS) and have different burst traffic characteristics, will create a wide variety of traffic flows in ATM networks. However, as various telecommunication services are introduced in the near future, it will become more difficult to forecast the eventual demand for each new service. In order to implement ATM networks effectively, we must innovate operation concepts and systems peripheral to ATM networks, as well as technologies within the networks. ATM networks require new traffic related operation concepts and systems for the following reasons: (i) Network dimensioning is complicated due to the variety of traffic. (ii) It is difficult to forecast the demand for each service, so it is difficult to dimension network resources, such as virtual path (VP) bandwidth. (iii) Different service classes, such as
multipoint/multicast/broadcast, bi-directional/unidirectional and CBR/VBR/UBR/ABR, use network resources differently. Moreover, the following problems encountered in the existing networks need to be overcome in new operation concepts: (i)Busy hours are different for each point-to-point, the sum of basic traffic intensity causes the required network resources to be overestimated if the sum is used for dimensioning. (ii) Dimensioning using the Poissonian arrival assumption causes errors because the actual arrival is not Poisson. (iii) Dimensioning is complicated due to frequent changes in the trunk circuit group. We proposes a traffic engineering and operation concept mainly for handling paths and circuits in ATM networks. We call the concept a "Self-sizing network operation".
This is a traffic engineering and operation concept developed for ATM networks. This concept allows networks to be rapidly operated and flexibly re-dimensioned by the operation system, based on measurements of traffic flow or demand. The details are presented in the next section.
Next, we will report the results of implementing virtual path (VP) bandwidth control and network element (NE) interfaces. There are Step 1 functions in the "Self-sizing network operation". We have developed an operation system (OpS) that applies telecommunication management network (TMN) concepts that are compatible with the trend toward standardizing NEs and the OpS.
Then, we will evaluate the performance of the Step 1 functions in actual use. We measure the actual time for common management information protocol (CMIP) communication between NEs and OpS, and the actual time for the whole operation. We also estimate the time for the operation based on the measurements.