Generalized max-min rate allocation: Theory and a simple implementation

An important concept in the available bit rate (ABR) service model is the minimum cell rate (MCR) guarantee as well as the peak cell rate (PCR) constraint for each flow. Due to the MCR and PCR requirements, the well-known max-min rate allocation policy no longer suffices to determine the rate allocation for each flow since it does not support either MCR or PCR. In this paper, we present a generalized max-min (GMM) rate allocation policy, which supports both the MCR and PCR requirements for each flow. Furthermore, a simple distributed algorithm using the ABR flow control protocol is developed to achieve the GMM rate allocation in a distributed network environment. The effectiveness of this distributed algorithm is demonstrated by simulation results.