| 摘要 |
<p>Flow shaping is executed at each ATM device in a virtual circuit formed in an ATM network (10). More particularly, the flow of data units through the virtual circuit is controlled at each ATM switch (20) such that the variable transmission delay remains substantially constant from hop to hop. Flow shaping at each device causes variable transmission delay to remain substantially constant throughout the virtual circuit, thereby allowing formation of an ATM virtual circuit having an arbitrarily large number of ATM switch (20) 'hops' without constraints imposed by required playout buffer (24) size. Further, the invention minimizes end-to-end delay.</p> |
