A very general approach for an approximate analysis of end-to-end delay jitter in asynchronous transfer mode (ATM) networks for bursty input traffic is presented. Since the cell loss requirements within ATM networks are very restrictive, interest is in the tail of the complementary probability distribution function of the end-to-end delay to estimate the cell loss probability at the reassembly buffer. An analytical approach for an isolated network node as well as for a whole reference connection is presented. The approximation results are in good agreement with simulation results and indicate that the end-to-end delay jitter is in the range of the maximum transfer delay of one queuing node, if the bursty input traffic is controlled by adequate traffic control mechanisms.>

Various space priority mechanisms and their detailed performance evaluation are described. A comparative performance study is given, indicating the excellent performance characteristics of a simple buffer management scheme called partial buffer sharing. The introduction of a second bearer capability provides a 10/sup -6/ cell loss rate instead of 10/sup -10/.>

Priorities for buffer access, also called space priorities, are discussed in connection with the asynchronous transfer mode (ATM), which is widely accepted as the basis for the future broadband ISDN. The introduction of priorities enables the ATM layer to adapt the quality of the cell transfer to the quality of service requirements of the specific broadband ISDN services in order to improve the utilization of the network resources. A description is given of different space priority mechanisms and their performance evaluation. A comparative performance study of these concepts is given, indicating the good performance characteristics of a simple buffering scheme called partial buffer sharing.>