Stochastic Service Curve and Delay Bound Analysis: A Single Node Case

TL;DR

This paper investigates the stochastic service curve and delay bounds for a single node in a packet-switched network, addressing both isolated and multi-flow scenarios with a focus on independence and sharing effects.

Contribution

It provides new stochastic service curve characterizations and delay bounds for a single node, including cases with multiple flows and flow independence.

Findings

Derived stochastic service curves for single flow and multi-flow scenarios.

Established delay bounds considering flow sharing and independence.

Enhanced understanding of stochastic network calculus for simple network nodes.

Abstract

A packet-switched network node with constant capacity (in bps) is considered, where packets within each flow are served in the first in first out (FIFO) manner. While this single node system is perhaps the simplest computer communication system, its stochastic service curve characterization and independent case analysis in the context of stochastic network calculus (snetcal) are still basic and many crucial questions surprisingly remain open. Specifically, when the input is a single flow, what stochastic service curve and delay bound does the node provide? When the considered flow shares the node with another flow, what stochastic service curve and delay bound does the node provide to the considered flow, and if the two flows are independent, can this independence be made use of and how? The aim of this paper is to provide answers to these fundamental questions.