In this thesis we analyze broadband switching architectures based on the Asynchronous Transfer Mode (ATM). Many architectures have been proposed in the literature for high-speed packet switches. We first review some of these switch architectures and their performance. The high-performance switch architectures, in general, require that the buffers be placed at the output ports. These output buffered switches tend to have large hardware complexity or require high speedup in their operation. Our focus is on high-performance switch architectures with low speedup output buffers or a shared buffer. An N $\times$ d ATM switch with finite output buffers is modeled as a discrete-time queue. The case d = 1 represents an ATM multiplexer with N input source and a finite capacity buffer. Loading at the input as well as at the output is considered to be imbalanced, which greatly affects the switch performance especially the hot spot traffic pattern. We also consider the switch with reduced speedup. In this case, the number of cells going to an output buffer in one time slot is limited to L N. This greatly simplifies the implementation of the switch. The arrivals to an input port of the switch, besides being bursty, are correlated in the sense that a burst arriving to an output port brings with it several cells belonging to the same virtual connection. As a worst case, we assume that consecutive cells in a burst are heading to the same output port. This greatly affects the dimensioning of the switch buffer. The input process to each input port is modeled by an Interrupted Bernoulli Process (IBP). We have developed an aggregation technique which allows the reduction of the state space that describes the arrival processes to the switch. This makes handling the output buffer driven by the induced process more manageable. Traffic priorities in ATM networks is an important issue because such networks will support applications with diverse traffic characteristics. In the light of this, we consider traffic priorities in an output buffered switch and in a completely shared-buffer switch. The transient analysis of the output buffer is also studied by considering the mean time until buffer overflow. The switch architecture that has the maximum mean-time-to-blocking is favorable. The busy period of the output buffer is also characterized. In routing the whole burst to an output buffer, the output process becomes more bursty than the input process.

A handy source for practicing engineers and researchers, this book offers collected examples of successful performance evaluation of high speed telecommunications switching fabrics such as ATM networks and high speed interconnection technology for computers. It emphasizes the performance evaluation of such switches as they apply to predicting a proposed system's performance through the use of statistical models -- a cost-saving way for communications engineers to test the design of a system without having to construct it.

Reflecting the developments in the integrated transport of heterogenous kinds of communication services, this book provides an account of the switching for broadband ATM networks by covering three different areas: the theory of switching; the architecture of ATM switching fabrics; and the performance of the ATM switching fabrics.; The book combines the analysis of ATM theory, architecture and performance and presents the analytical models available to evaluate the traffic performance of ATM switches under random traffic, together with a wide set of results on the traffic performance of each si.

Asynchronous Transfer Mode (ATM) networks are widely considered to be the new generation of high speed communication systems both for broadband public information highways and for local and wide area private networks. ATM is designed to integrate existing and future voice, audio, image and data services. Moreover, ATM aims to simplify the complexity of switching and buffer management, to optimise intermediate node processing and buffering and to limit transmission delays. However, to support such diverse services on one integrated communication network, it is most essential, through careful engineering, to achieve a fruitful balance amongst the conflicting requirements of different quality of service constraints ensuring that one service does not have adverse implications on another. Over recent years there has been a great deal of progress in research and development of ATM technology, but there are still many interesting and important problems to be resolved such as traffic characterisation and control, routing and optimisation, ATM switching techniques and the provision of quality of service. This book presents thirty-two research papers, both from industry and academia, reflecting latest original achievements in the theory and practice of performance modelling of ATM networks worldwide. These papers were selected, subject to peer review, from those submitted as extended and revised versions out of fifty-nine shorter papers presented at the Second IFIP Workshop on "Performance Modelling and Evaluation of ATM Networks" July 4-7, 1994, Bradford University. At least three referees from the scientific committee and externally were involved in the selection of each paper.

SPECTS'98 features many presentations of performance evaluation of computer & telecommunication systems. Among these, ATM systems, tracing techniques, teletraffic engineering, quality of service, memory systems, parallel & distributed processing, interconnection networks, network management, high-speed networking, high-performance computing/computers, algorithms, performance measurement, mobile computing & networking, architectures, workload characterization, congestion control & admission, resource allocation, wireless systems, protocols, & others. This year's proceedings includes top-quality papers from all over the world, with representation from academia, industry, business & government.

Performance evaluation, reliability, and performability are key factors in the development and improvement of computer systems and computer networks. This volume contains the 25 accepted and invited papers presented at the 7th International Conference on Modelling Techniques and Tools for Computer Performance Evaluation. The papers focus on new techniques and the extension of existing techniques for performance and reliability analysis. Tools to support performance and reliability modelling and measurement in all kinds of applications and environments are presented, and the practicability and generality of the approaches are emphasized. The volume summarizes the state of the art and points out future demands and challenges, and will interest both scientists and practitioners.

Masters Theses in the Pure and Applied Sciences was first conceived, published, and disseminated by the Center for Information and Numerical Data Analysis and Synthesis (CINDAS)* at Purdue University in 1957, starting its coverage of theses with the academic year 1955. Beginning with Volume 13, the printing and dis semination phases of the activity were transferred to University Microfilms/Xerox of Ann Arbor, Michigan, with the though that such an arrangement would be more beneficial to the academic and general scientific and technical community. After five years of this joint undertaking we had concluded that it was in the interest of all concerned if the printing and distribution of the volumes were handled by an international publishing house to assure improved service and broader dissemi nation. Hence, starting with Volume 18, Masters Theses in the Pure and Applied Sciences has been disseminated on a worldwide basis by Plenum Publishing Corporation of New York, and in the same year the coverage was broadened to include Canadian universities. All back issues can also be ordered from Plenum. We have reported in Volume 37 (thesis year 1992) a total of 12,549 thesis titles from 25 Canadian and 153 United States universities. We are sure that this broader base for these titles reported will greatly enhance the value of this impor tant annual reference work. While Volume 37 reports theses submitted in 1992, on occasion, certain uni versities do report theses submitted in previous years but not reported at the time.