Dynamic Flow Control Protocols for Packet-Switching Multiplexers Serving Real-Time Multipacket Messages

The prospect of using packetized services for real-time data, particularly voice data, is generating considerable interest. This paper proposes three dynamic flow control protocols for a multiplexer handling packetized real-time data, in an attempt to provide flexibility to the multiplexer operation and at the same time to satisfy strict delay constraints imposed on real-time data. It is typical of real-time traffic that data lose their value as they age prior to the reception. The flow control protocols are based on this idea and selectively discard portions of a message when congestion develops within the multiplexer. Queueing analyses of the protocols as well as simulation results are presented.