This paper presents a new communication service for ATM networks that provides one-way, adjustable rate, on-demand communication channels. The proposed dynamic flow service is designed to operate within a multi-service cell switched network that supports both conventional switched virtual circuits and IP packet routing and is designed to complement those services. It is particularly well suited to applications that transmit substantial amounts of data (a few tens of kilobytes or more) in fairly short time periods (up to a few seconds). Much of the current World-Wide Web traffic falls within this domain. Like IP packet networks, the new service permits the transmission of data without prior end-to-end connection establishment. It uses a variant of ATM resource management cells to carry dynamic flow setup information along with the data, including an IP destination address and burst transmission rate. Switches along the path select next an outgoing link dynamically using the burst rate to guide the routing decision. The dynamic flow setup protocol is based on soft-state control and is designed to facilitate the use of buffers that are shared across all ports of a switch, minimizing per port memory costs.
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