Stochastic Analysis of Some Expedited Forwarding Networks

We consider stochastic guarantees for networks with aggregate scheduling, in particular, Expedited Forwarding (EF). Our approach is based on the assumption that a node can be abstracted by a service curve, and the input flows are regulated individually at the network ingress. Both of these assumptions are inline with the current definition of EF \cite{charny-00-b,davie-01-a}. We derive bounds to the complementary distributions of the backlog, delay through a single node, and the end-to-end delay. We also give a bound on the loss-ratio. Our analysis is exact under the given assumptions. Our results should help us to understand the performance of networks with aggregate scheduling, and provide the basis for dimensioning such networks.