A method is disclosed for determining the admissibility of an offered
session of traffic of a specified class to a server in a packetized
communication network. Each class c has a peak traffic rate r(c). The
server has a total processing rate C. Admitted packets are scheduled
according to an EDF scheduling discipline. The method for determining
admissibility comprises defining an operating point for the server. The
operating point represents the number of sessions N.sub.c of each
respective class currently offered or currently being served. The method
further comprises determining whether the defined operating point falls
within a set of operating points that together define an admissible
region. The admissible region consists of operating points for which the
probability of violating a delay bound for any packet is below a
threshold. The determination of the admissible region involves principles
of statistical multiplexing.
