Performance of high-speed data transfer using an FEC method in a multimedia network environment

Abstract

In the ATM system, all multimedia information, such as voice, picture and data, is divided into packets with the fixed length of 53 bytes, called cells, and the cells are transferred. Intensive studies have been made on the performance of the system, where such multimedia information is multiplexed in the network switch. In the ATM network, the cell loss is not compensated, and it is necessary that the end-user should recover from the errors in order to realize highly reliable data transfer among computers. As one such approach, the error-correcting code (FEC) has been considered interesting. From such a viewpoint, this paper evaluates analytically the data transfer performance when FEC is used. When FEC is used, the redundant cell produces an overhead, which may enhance congestion when the traffic in the network is high and deteriorate the performance. Also, from this viewpoint, this paper considers the priority control, where the redundant cells are discarded positively when the network is congested. The effectiveness of the approach is examined, as in the data transfer performance for the case where the video and the data exist together in the traffic, and it is demonstrated that the control parameters in the priority control are especially important in that case.