A Simulation-Based Comparison of Multimedia Traffic Prioritization Schemes for High-Performance Input-Queued Packet Switches

Abstract

This study investigates the problem of enabling Quality of Service (QoS) of multimedia traffic at the input port of high-performance input-queued packet switches using a simulation-based evaluation. We focus on the possibility of assuring QoS of multimedia traffic in such switches by implementing traffic prioritization at the input port where each input-queue has been modified to provide a separate buffer for each of the service classes. The multimedia traffic can be categorized into three classes based on its real-time properties and loss tolerance and assigned a separate queue for each class. We select appropriate models for each of three types of traffic: video, voice and data. Then, we propose an efficient dynamic scheduling strategy by implementing multimedia traffic prioritization at the input port of input-queued packet switches. Simulation-based comparisons show that while the static priority scheme is beneficial for highest priority class at the expense of the others, the dynamic prioritization serves fairly well all the classes in terms of delay and loss requirements.