A versatile timing unit for traffic shaping, policing and charging in packet-switched networks

Sarakis, L; Moshopoulos, N; Loukatos, D; Marinis, K; Stathopoulos, P; Mitrou, N

dc.contributor.author	Sarakis, L	en
dc.contributor.author	Moshopoulos, N	en
dc.contributor.author	Loukatos, D	en
dc.contributor.author	Marinis, K	en
dc.contributor.author	Stathopoulos, P	en
dc.contributor.author	Mitrou, N	en
dc.date.accessioned	2014-03-01T01:27:49Z
dc.date.available	2014-03-01T01:27:49Z
dc.date.issued	2008	en
dc.identifier.issn	1383-7621	en
dc.identifier.uri	https://dspace.lib.ntua.gr/xmlui/handle/123456789/18590
dc.subject	Effective rate	en
dc.subject	Hardware/software co-design	en
dc.subject	QoS	en
dc.subject	Temporal resolution	en
dc.subject	Token bucket	en
dc.subject.classification	Computer Science, Hardware & Architecture	en
dc.subject.other	Computer hardware	en
dc.subject.other	Computer software	en
dc.subject.other	Constraint theory	en
dc.subject.other	Packet networks	en
dc.subject.other	Quality of service	en
dc.subject.other	Hardware/software co-design	en
dc.subject.other	Temporal resolution	en
dc.subject.other	Token bucket	en
dc.subject.other	Telecommunication traffic	en
dc.title	A versatile timing unit for traffic shaping, policing and charging in packet-switched networks	en
heal.type	journalArticle	en
heal.identifier.primary	10.1016/j.sysarc.2007.08.004	en
heal.identifier.secondary	http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.sysarc.2007.08.004	en
heal.language	English	en
heal.publicationDate	2008	en
heal.abstract	Timing has a key role in several traffic control functions encountered in modern packet-switched networks. In order to be effective, a timing unit must provide fine resolution, be simple to implement and scale well with the number of controlled traffic streams. This paper addresses the design, implementation and evaluation of a timing unit that can support accurate and efficient implementations of traffic shaping, policing and charging in packet-switched networks. The timing unit is implemented in hardware and, therefore, overcomes constraints associated with software-based timers. It accommodates a pool of independently-clocked timers and counters, organised in timing blocks, and, consequently, is able to support, in parallel, traffic streams with diverse timing requirements. The design supports shaping and policing through token buckets, leaky buckets and a scheme, variation of the token bucket, that aims at providing statistical quality of service guarantees by exploiting the effective rate concept. Charging is supported by dedicated counters that measure the utilization of the effective rate. The granularity of the timing unit is adjustable in run-time to adapt to changes in the rate parameters of the shaping and policing functions. The validation of the timing unit is done through the development of a prototype board consisting of programmable hardware and embedded software blocks. The temporal resolution of the timing unit and the advantages of the hardware/ software co-design are experimentally evaluated. (C) 2007 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.	en
heal.publisher	ELSEVIER SCIENCE BV	en
heal.journalName	Journal of Systems Architecture	en
dc.identifier.doi	10.1016/j.sysarc.2007.08.004	en
dc.identifier.isi	ISI:000256863400002	en
dc.identifier.volume	54	en
dc.identifier.issue	5	en
dc.identifier.spage	491	en
dc.identifier.epage	506	en