Title: On dynamic packet fragmentation for traffic integration over bandwidth-limited links

Authors: Liang Guo, Whay Chiou Lee, Ying-ieh Lin

Addresses: Applied Research and Technology Center, Motorola, 111 Locke Drive, Marlborough, MA 01752, USA. ' Applied Research and Technology Center, Motorola, 111 Locke Drive, Marlborough, MA 01752, USA. ' Airvana, 19 Alpha Road, Chelmsford, MA 01824, USA

Abstract: We consider a home networking system for integrating packetised isochronous and best-effort traffic over a shared link with limited bandwidth, wherein the isochronous traffic comprises multiple isochronous flows, each associated with a periodic packet arrival process having a constant isochronous packet transmission period. In such a system, best-effort packets of variable size can render it impossible to guarantee QoS of the isochronous traffic. We propose a dynamic packet fragmentation method to integrate isochronous and best-effort traffic. In particular, the method supports packet fragmentation with fixed size or variable size packets. We show that the method effectively increases link utilisation and best-effort traffic throughput, without violating the delay and jitter requirements for isochronous traffic.

Keywords: packet fragmentation; QoS; quality of service; scheduling; home network gateways; traffic integration; bandwidth limits; isochronous traffic; best-effort traffic; home networks.

DOI: 10.1504/IJCNDS.2009.022331

International Journal of Communication Networks and Distributed Systems, 2009 Vol.2 No.2/3, pp.181 - 197

Published online: 01 Jan 2009 *

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