Thesis (M.Eng.) - Asian Institute of Technology, 1995

A thesis submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirement for the degree of Master of Engineering.

Asynchronous Transfer Mode (ATM) has been widely recognized as a promising solution for the target broadband network for the future. A wide ranges of services, characterized by different traffic behaviors, may share the same ATM transport network, where cells belonging to different calls are multiplexed together. Today the ATM is already closer to become a reality but the knowledge and understanding about ATM traffic characteristics, network planning and management are still limited. Traffic measurements are strongly required as a tool to gain more knowledge and better understanding of ATM environment from the traffic point of view. Only a few studies of traffic measurements in ATM environment have been reported, but their importance has already been understood. This thesis proposes and classifies ATM traffic measurement processes into two levels: connection-level and cell-level. The available data in ATM environment are investigated and formed as basic traffic measurement data. This report demonstrates connection-level and cell-level traffic measurement processes, describes their limitations and shows that both of them are required in ATM environment. To study the traffic measurement in ATM environment, the simulation model of ATM call and cell handling with traffic measurement is created. The simulation model constructed in this study can be applicable in the studies of connection admission control (CAC) performance evaluation and ATM link dimensioning.