Abstract: A channel resource (50) allocation technique includes maintaining a probability of blocking a call for a call class within desired limits. A channel resource allocation module (38) determines a current probability of blocking a call of at least one class based upon current traffic for at least that class and a current resource allocation. A disclosed example includes using an ATM network and automatically adjusting CID resource allocations on a PVC to increase the allocation for that class if the current probability exceeds a desired probability. A disclosed example includes maintaining different probabilities for different classes with different priorities.

Abstract: By approximating a packet network, such as the Internet, by an M/M/1 queuing model, the available bandwidth of the network can determined from the variance of the distribution of the sojourn times of packets transmitted through the network. In order to determine the variance of the distribution of sojourn times, and thus the bandwidth of the packet network that is available for transport of packets from an input to an output, a probe train of N packets with known inter-packet intervals is injected from an input on a sending side of the network. At the receiving side of the network, the packet arrival times are measured and the inter-packet intervals of each pair of received packets in the received train are calculated and compared with the known inter-packet interval times of the corresponding input packets.