An integrated simulation environment for the analysis of ATM networks at multiple time scales

This paper describes the rationale and the implementation of a simulation environment for the analysis of ATM networks. The simulation environment is based on the integration of two software tools that operate at different time scales, and thus permit the computation of different types of performance metrics. The two chosen times scales are named “call-level” and “cell-level”. The call-level time scale is the one at which the relevant events mainly concern the user access to communication services, hence the establishment and release of connections. The cell-level time scale instead is the one at which the relevant events mainly concern the handling of ATM cells and of the PDUs that are transferred by means of them. An example of use of the simulation environment demonstrates the power and the advantages of this novel integrated approach.