SPF: to improve the performance of packet-mode scheduling

Recent researches present that packet-mode scheduling may provide overall performance advantages over cell-mode scheduling in input queueing switches. But one significant drawback of existing packet-mode schedulers is that they tend to result in longer waiting time of short packets, whose delay is critical to the performance of IP networks. To mitigate the problem, this paper proposes a simple but effective packet-mode scheduling algorithm called Short Packets First (SPF), studies the corresponding buffering architecture, and evaluates the performance on throughput and packet delay. SPF achieves 100% throughput under an accurate Internet traffic model. Theoretical analysis proves that SPF can reduce the average packet waiting time of short packets as well as overall packets, under the condition of uniform Poisson arrival process and low to medium offered load. Furthermore, extended simulation studies show that SPF is superior to general packet-mode and cell-mode scheduling, especially under heavy offered load.