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Abstract

A bandwidth management and congestion control scheme for a multi-cast ATM network which includes a buffer reservation mechanism comprised of a state machine for association with each virtual circuit set up through the network, the state machine being adapted to monitor the number of available buffer slots at a data link and reading an encoding scheme for cells comprising a burst of data in order to control its switching from an active to an idle state to thereby control the flow of data through the virtual circuit. A state dependent token pool mechanism is associated with each virtual circuit and generates tokens at varying rates which are 'used' by transmitted data in order to monitor and control the average data rate passing through a data link over a virtual circuit. By thus monitoring and controlling the peak data rate and average data rate, the bandwidth for each data link is efficiently managed to maximize data throughput and minimize loss of data cells from data bursts. A novel means for determining the availability of capacity on a data link for establishing a virtual circuit is also disclosed which depends on a probability calculation expressed in terms of the average data rate and peak data rate through a network link. This information is available through the buffer reservation mechanism and the token pool mechanism to facilitate the fast calculation required to establish a virtual circuit 'on the fly'. Various implementation details are also provided.

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First Claim