Fuzzy Logic Trafc Control in

Broadband Communication Networks

Hiam Hiok Lim and Bin Qiu
School of Cmputer Science and Sofare Engineering
PO Box 26, Monash University, VIC. 3800, Australia
Abs/ract-Trafc pricions bave beeD demonstrate "jtb tb cpbil
ity 10 imprve Detwon .fceDe and QS in brdband AT n_r
Rent rnb sbows tbat rur logic pricon outpmrs cnventona
autorsion pricions [11 [21_ Te appliction of fzzy logic 0"0 bas a
potential t coDtrl trafc mor efectey_ In this papr, wo prps tbe use
ortbe frl logc prdiction on cnnecion admisson contrl (CAC) and con
gestion contrl 00 bigh spee oetwor. We frt modeled trafc cbarctor
isties using an oo-lioo fzy logc prictor on CAC. Simulation rslts sbow
tbat rrl logc priction imprves tbe efcieney of bt conentiooal aod
measurmen-base Clo adiioo, tbe measurmen-base appracb i
cocporating fuzzy logc infernce and using fuz y logic pricion is sbown
to achiee bigber netwon utilization wbile maintaining QoS. We tben ap
plie tbe fzy logc predictor to Cag.StOD contl i wbicb lbe AR queue
is esmated one round-trp in advance. Simulatioo "ults sbow that tbe
fzzy logic contrl scbeme sigifcntly rduc conerence time and over
all bufer ruirements as compar wih conventional schemes
Kewrr-fz logic prictioo, asyncbrnous transfer moe (AT)
network, quality of serice (QoS), connection admission conlrl (CAC),
congestion contrl.
I. INTRODUCTION
According to the ITU-T Recommendation 1.371 [3], there are
to categories of control mechanism for AM networks: pre
ventive and reactive cntrols. Preventive control is open-loop,
meaning the control algorithm makes decision based on its local
node, such as link capacity and bufer availability in the system.
Reactive control is close-loop in which network situations are
feedback from the network to the sources.
CAC is an example of preventive control. Its main role is to
determine whether a new connection request should be accepted
or rejected. The decision is based on the availability of resurces
(bandwidth and bufer) and whether the OoS can b gaanteed
for a new connection without degrading the promiserl OoS of ex-.
isting connections. Conventional CAC relies on analytica[ mod
els in which parameters are based on a priori or user-specifed
trafc descriptors [4] [5] [6]. However an analytical model may
not be able to capture the statistical nature of trafe sources.
This is because VBR trafc characteristics such as Sustainable
Cell Rate (SCR), Intrinsic Burst Tolerance (IBT) and Cell Delay
Variation (COY) are difcult for users to specify precisely. Im
proper specification of trafc characteristics could lead to either
degraded OoS or lin under-utilization.
Explicit rate (ER) switch algorithm for congestion control is
an example of reactive control. II uses ER feld of the Re
SUTce Management (R) cells to convey network information
to sources. The main challenge of a feedback control is long
propagation delay which can cause bufer overown and QoS
degradation. High utilization, low queueing delay and fairness
are thc main goals of a switch scheme. Switch algorithms use
either static threshold values [7] [8] or complex mathematical
expressions [9] for congestion control have an inherent disad
vantage. They cannot adapt well to traffc fuctuations, resulting
in high cell loss or low link utilization in some situations.
This paper proposes two traffc controllers based on fzzy
logic prediction. Firstly, based on the concepts of free band-
0-7803-7293-XOI/$17.0 2001 IEE 99
width and the adaptive weight factor in [10], this paper proposes
a novel measurement-based CAC using fuz y logic approach.
Secondly a novel closed-loop fuzzy logic congestion controller
is proposd. It main aim is to improve the bufer requirements
and convergence time on two switch algorithms - Explicit
Rate Indication for Congestion Avoidance (ERICA+) [9] and Bi
directional Explicit Rate Marki ng Optimizer (BEMO) [11]. In
ths study, our main goal is to exploit the avantages of fzy
logic prediction and control on broadband cmmunication net
works.
The remainder of this paper is organized as follows. A de
tailed deription of the proposed trafc cntrollers is presented
in Section I. Network simulations and results are discussed in
Section III. A summary which concludes the paper is presented
in Section I.
II. Fuzzy LOGIC ApPLICATION IN BROADBAND NETWORKS
A. Connection Admision Contrl
Fig. l(a) shows the proposed measurement-based fuzy logic
connection admission cntroller. It consists of a fuzzy logic traf
fc predictor, a fzy logic adaptive weight factor estimator and
a connection admission decision controller.
When a new connection request arrives, the new trafc trace
is predicted using the multi-step ahead predictor. Predicted Peak
Cell Rate (POR) is obtained at the end of a measurement inter
vaL This predicted PCR is compared with the mini mum avail
able free bandwidth on all relevant [inks which the new connec
tion will traverse. I it is higher than the minimum available free
bandwidth, the new connection is rejected; otherise, the con
nection is accepted.
A shown in Fig. l(a), the arrival rate, trafc load and queue
length are red into a fuzzy logic inference system which pro
duces a weight factor (Fuzy Logic Adaptive Weight Factor -
F AW F. This weight factor adjusts the available free band
width adaptively according to the trafc conditions as expressed
by Equation (1).
Available Free Bandwidth = Adaptive Weight Fac/or
(1)
x Aggregate Free Bandwidth
Triangular and trapezoidal shapes are adopted for both input
and output membershp functions and are shown in Fig. 2.
Table I shows the linguistic rles for the fzzy logic adaptive
weight factor estimator. The design of the fuzzy linguistic rles
takes into consideration of the following conditions:
Under severe congestion: the arrival rate of the input trafc
increases rapidly, the queue length and trafc load at the output
link are normally high, then the adaptive weight factor should be
low or moderateJow, to reduce the available free bandwidth.
Under a light load condition: the queue length is low, the input
traffc and the outgoing link load are low, the adaptive weight
201 IEEE Intemational Fuzzy Systems Confernce
!
-
(a) The Cnnection Amission ControllI (b) The Congestion Controller.
Fig. L Application of lbe Fuzzy Logic Prediction and conlrol.
#I"w ,lmI
AdIliv WIPar(F A W F)
Fig. 2. Membrhip fnctions of Ihe linguislic values for representing the lin
glistic variables "current YR queue length", "measred trafc loa" (same for
"arrival rate of the input trafc") and adaplive weighl faclor (F AW F).
factor should be high, so that the proposed CAe can increase
the amount of available free bandwidth in order to accept more
cnnections.
Under moderate lnad condition: the weight factor is medium
s-that the. proposd CAe keeps accepting new connections a
long as the QoS requirements are satisfed.
B. Congestion Contrl
Fig. 1() shows the prposed fzy logic congestion con
troller. It consists of a fuzzy logic predictor and a fuzzy logic
target utilization factor generator.
Separate output queues for diferent categories of serices, i.e.
the CBR/BR queue and the ABR queue, are considered. Since
CBR and VBR trafc have distinct tolerances for delay, jitter and
cell loss ratio, they are sered at a higher prorty than ABR traf
fc. The predictor predicts the AR queue one round-trip delay
in advance. This predicted queue value, together with the total
queue growth rate and curent ABR queue length are provided
to the fuzzy logic factor generator which produces a target uti
lization factor (T f). This factor varies the target ABR capacity
dynamically according to the bufer cndition one round-trip de
lay in advance.
TABLE I
LrNGUISTIC RULES FOR THE Fuzzy LOGIC ADAPTIVE WEIGHT FACTOR
ESTIMATOR.
Irq i. and loi is I aDd Ar Rite is /I then FAWF is I -
lo o ow high
low ow me-um moo. rate_hIgh
low lo high meium
lo medium lo or medium medium
lo medium high roerateJow
low high lo or medium mediulIl
lo hIgh high moeraEeJow
medIUm tow low moeraEe_high
medium lo medium or hIgh medIum
meIUm medium meOlum
medium hIgl moderaEeJow
high low roeraleJow
high medium lo moerale-.lo
high medium medium or high lo
hIgh high low mod.rate.o
htgh high medium or high lo
q:current VBR queue; loa : trafc load;
Arr cRate: Ara rate of the input Irafc
Target ABR Capacit = Target Utilization Factor
x Total ABR Capacit
(2)
When a BRM cell (and FRM cell in the BEMO case) is re
ceived by the switch, the explicit rate switch algorithm allocates
the explicit rate fairly among AR sources based on this dynamic
capacity. Hence the computed ER value has been taen into cn
sideration of bufer situation one round-trip delay in advance. A
a consequence, the bufer is less likely to be overflown or empty.
A shown in Fig. 1(), the trget utilization factor (T/) is gov
ered by three input variables, i.c. the current and predicted ABR
queue lengths and the total queue growth rate; and the lingistic
information stored in the rule base. Triangular and trapezium
shapes are adopted for both input and output membership fnc
tions. Due to space limitations, detailed design of the member
ship fnctions and fuzzy linguistic rles can be found in [12].
Ill. SIMULATION RESULTS AND DISCUSSION
A. Connection Admission Contrl
Fig. 3 shows the simulation model used in the study. There are
n elisting connections, feeding into a single server queue. The
specifed QoS requ irements (e.g. CLR) of these n connections
are curently maintained by the system. To ensure that the same
QoS for the n + 1 (including the new arival) connecti ons are
met, this new connection wilt be admitted if the predicted PCR
100
Fig. 3. Simulation Model fo Ihe CAe.
TABL !I
TRAFC TYPES PARAMETER SETTINGS.
is lower than the minimum available bandwidth of all relevant
links.
Three types of VBR trafc trace are used (II
-
D). All VBR
sources are modeled as a Poisson distributed on-of source which
alternate between active and idle periods, and transmit cells with
an independent exponentially distributed mean bit rate during ac
tive periods. Table II shows the trafc types used in the simula
tion. Note that type 3 (3) trafc is a combination of type 1 (II)
and type 2 (I2) trafc. The remaining parameters, CLR is fixed
at 10
-
6, the link rate is set at 155.52 Mbps.
Three methods are used to obtain the trafc descrptors of a
new connection, namely, a priori, and measurement-based with
and without fz y logic prediction. These methods are applied
to a conventional equivalent capacity CAe [4J and the proposed
measurement-based CAe. Note that for the conventional CAC,
trafc descriptors are composed of peak cell rate, mean bit rate
and burst length, whereas for the fuzzy logic CAC, peak cell rate
is the only trafc descriptor required. PCR is considered as it is
simpler to determine compared with mean bit rate or burst length.
A.l Performance Evaluation
Fig. 4 illustrates the efciency achieved for the conventional
and the fuzzy logic CAC with various traf c descriptors and a
buf er capacity of 1000 cells under diferent trafc situations.
There are no cell loss for both types of CAe.
The Efects of Fuzzy Logic Prediction
In the conventional CAC, traf c dcriptors predicted by fuzzy
logic achieve a distinctive high utilization compared with the a
priori and measured non-predictive trafc descriptors. As shown
in Fig. 4(a), the predictive traf c descriptors improve efciency
by about 27% and 19% compared to the a priori and measured
non-predictive trafc descriptors respectively.
Fig. 4(b) shows that the improvement is less impressive but
stilt distinctive on the fzy logic CAC as cmpared with the
conventional CAe. The overall imprvement in efciency when
using the fuz y logic predictive traffc descriptor is about 10%
and 4% compared to the a priori and measured non-predictive
trafc descriptors respectively. This is mainly because statistical
multiplexing gain has fully exploited in the fuzzy logic CAe.
In summary, the fuzzy logic predictor provides a sof and ac
curate estimation of traffc parameter(s) for new connections. A
a result, the perforance of the CAC is signifcantly improved.
101

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1
" '
'- '--
. I
,e., -,.Y
Fig. 5. Network Moel for the Generic Fairess Congration-2 (GFC).
TAL 1lI
MAX-MIN RATES FOR THE GFC2 NETWORK,
I Grup I No otVCs I Rt. (bp) I
A 3 10.0
B 3 5.0
J J:.Q
D 1 35.0
E 2 3).0
F 1 10.0
G 7 5,0
H Z 52.'
Efciency Evaluation
Fig. 4(b) shows that the proposed fuzzy logic CAC produces
consistently higher efciency for all trafc compared with the
conventional CAe. From the fgure, it can be seen that efciency
of over 90% is achieved for types 1 (II) and 2 trafc () and
80% for type 3 trafc (I3).
Compared the efciency improvement between the fuzzy logic
CAC and the conventional CAC using predictive traf c descrip
tor(s), with type 3 (3) trafc, for example, efciency is im
proved by 19%.
,- This is due to the fact that network performance parameters
are used as input linguistic variables. A a result, the fzy logic
CAC uses more information for making connection admision
decisions than the conventional CAe.
B, Congestion Contrl
In this section, we present the simulation results to illustrate
the performance of the fzzy logic congestion control scheme
and its advantages over the conventional scheme. We applied the
fzzy logic congestion control scheme and in cmparison to con
ventional congestion control scheme on the ERICA+ and BEMO
algorithms.
Fig. 5 shows the network model used in our simulation. It is
one of the benchmark confguration recommended hy the ATM
Forum [13) and is also known as Generic Fairess Conguration-
2 (GFC2), We used this network model to study the fairess,
convergence time and robustness of the schemes.
The GFC2 network consists of seven switches and 22 connec
tions. These connections are grouped into eight classes (A-H) in
a Wide Aea Network (WAN) confguration, The link distance,
D, is assumed to be 100 km, and all links connecting sources or
destinations to switches have length equal to 10 Km. It is given
initial cell rate, ICR=PCR=150 Mbps. All sources are assumed
to be AR source. The expected max-min fairness rate for the
diferent group of ve are tabulated in Table Ill.
From the simulation, all shemes are able to converge to the
expected max-min fair share rates as shown in Table III. Ta
ble I shows the convergence time of the allowed cell rate (ACR)
and queue length for both schemes. It can be obsered that the
fuzy logic control scheme has a faster convergence time com-
(a) Colenlionai CAC. (b) Fuzy logic CAe.
Fig. 4. The efcienc achieed for the conentional and Ihe fz logic measurement-based CAC with various trafc descriptors and a bufer capacit of 100 cells
under diferent trafc traces.
TABLE [V
COMPARISON OF CONVERGENCE TIME FOR TiE GFC2 NETWORK.
Cleec \1 EC+
I
I BEMO
Tme (mBec) , @y , q
TALE V
COMPARISON OF QUEUE LENGTH FOR THE GFC2 NETWORK.
Qeue ER+ BEMO
(clls) Cmrettuqu 'uz convenbona Fzy
SWI 41
7
9
t
4175 4116 4110
125.15; 57.03 110.73 49.29
3.4* 3. 16 2.45 2.13
SW2 4023 4013 3898 3887
265.62 57.6 237.12 51.16
27.69 5.1B 2.26 1.84
SW3 6771 4746 6205 5035
134.50 60.6 120.36 5199
9.62 8.44 2.69 2.60
SW4 1424 11B3 1320 1154
445.02 253.90 348.78 97.14
50.67 41.83 6.11 2.94
SW5 1677 109 1169 1
40.90 214.11 181.48 97.18
49.97 12.70 23.69 2.52
SW6 673 6129 6233 6163
137.58 58.62 121.97 58.56
15.39 7.94 3.32 3.30
tmaximum; lmcan; .queue deviation
pared to the conventional scheme for the respective explicit rate
algorithms.
Table V shows the maximum, average and deviation of queue
length of switch 1 to switch 6 for both schemes. There are slight
diferences in the maximum queue length since it depends on
the ICR, the distance of the feedback path and the queue control
functions. Once the feedback is established, the fuzzy logic con
trl scheme is shown to have a lower maximum queue length,
es
p
ecially the SW3, SW4, SW5 and SW6 queues.
The average queue length and queue deviation are computed
after 400 msec when the rates have converged. Generally, the
fuzzy logic control scheme has a much lower and stable queue
compared to the conventional scheme.
Hence the fuzzy logic cntrol scheme is shown to be able to
optimize both the transient and steady state responses, i.e. con
verges quickly to a slid steady state from the initial conditions,
and drains the queue produced in the transient phase rapidly.
IV. CONCLUSIONS
Ths paper has presented two efcient trafc cntrol schemes
based on fuzzy logic prediction. We have demonstrated that
fzzy logic prediction improves the network efciency of the
conventional and measurement-based CAe. We also show that
Qo measurements are improved with the application of the
fzzy logic predictor on the AR queue. In addition, trafc con
trollers incorprating fuzzy logic inference are proved to be more
efecive than conventional schemes.
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