<p>The first part of the thesis (Part I) is devoted to find methods to describe transient behaviour of traffic processes, where the main emphasis is put on the description and analysis of excess periods and excess volumes of quite general stochastic processes. By assuming that traffic changes on different time scales, the transient characteristics such as excess periods could be important measures to describe periods of congestion on a communication link and moreover, the corresponding excess volume will represent lost information during such periods. Although the results obtained are of rather general nature, they provide some rather fundamental insight into transient characteristics of traffic processes. The distributions of the length of excess periods may then be expressed it terms of some excess probabilities that are related to the minimum of the process in the time interval considered. Similar relationsfor the excess volumes are harder to obtain and require the joint probability of the arrived volume and the minimum of the process in the same time interval.</p>

The first part of the thesis (Part I) is devoted to find methods to describe transient behaviour of traffic processes, where the main emphasis is put on the description and analysis of excess periods and excess volumes of quite general stochastic processes. By assuming that traffic changes on different time scales, the transient characteristics such as excess periods could be important measures to describe periods of congestion on a communication link and moreover, the corresponding excess volume will represent lost information during such periods. Although the results obtained are of rather general nature, they provide some rather fundamental insight into transient characteristics of traffic processes. The distributions of the length of excess periods may then be expressed it terms of some excess probabilities that are related to the minimum of the process in the time interval considered. Similar relationsfor the excess volumes are harder to obtain and require the joint probability of the arrived volume and the minimum of the process in the same time interval.

Nowadays mobility is a field of great importance. The fact of travelling or moving should not mean the rupture of the connection to the Internet. And the current objective is not only to be world-wide connected, it is also to be it always through the best available connection (ABC). It means the need to perform vertical handover to switch between different networks, while maintaining the same Internet connection. All this has to be done in a transparent way to the user. In order provide the highest Quality of Experience some tools are needed to enable checking the status and performance of the different available networks, measuring and collecting statistics, in order to take advantage of each one of them. This thesis presents the theoretical base for a measurement module by describing and analysing different metrics, with special emphasis on delay jitter, collecting and comparing different methods, and discussing their main characteristics and suitability for this goal.

Considere um sistema de comunicação em que um equipamento transmissor envia pacotes de dados, de tamanho fixo e a uma taxa uniforme, a um equipamento receptor. Considere também que esses equipamentos estejam conectados por uma rede de comutação de pacotes, que introduz um atraso aleatório a cada pacote que trafega na rede. Nesta tese, é proposto um modelo de recuperação adaptativa de relógio capaz de sincronizar as frequências e as fases desses dispositivos, dentro de certos limites especificados de precisão. Esse método para atingir sincronização de frequência e de fase é baseado em medições dos tempos de chegada dos pacotes ao receptor, que são usados para controlar a dinâmica de um phase-locked loop (PLL) digital. O desempenho desse modelo é avaliado através de simulações numéricas realizadas considerando valores de parâmetros realistas. Os resultados indicam que esse esquema tem potencial para ser usado em aplicações práticas. / Consider a communication system in which a transmitter equipment sends fixed-size packets of data at a uniform rate to a receiver equipment. Consider also that these equipments are connected by a packet-switched network, which introduces a random delay to each packet. In this thesis, we propose an adaptive clock recovery scheme capable of synchronizing the frequencies and the phases of these devices, within specified limits of precision. This scheme for achieving frequency and phase synchronization is based on measurements of the packet arrival times at the receiver, which are used to control the dynamics of a digital phase-locked loop (PLL). The scheme performance is evaluated via numerical simulations performed by using realistic parameter values. The results suggest that this scheme has potential to be used in practical applications.

A scheduling algorithm has the primary role in implementing the quality of service guaranteed to each flow by managing buffer space and selecting which packet to send next with a fair share of network. In this thesis, some scheduling algorithms for packet switching networks are studied. For evaluating their delay, jitter and throughput performances, a discrete event simulator has been developed. It has been seen that fair scheduling provides, fair allocation of bandwidth, lower delay for sources using less than their full share of bandwidth and protection from ill-behaved resources.

Considere um sistema de comunicação em que um equipamento transmissor envia pacotes de dados, de tamanho fixo e a uma taxa uniforme, a um equipamento receptor. Considere também que esses equipamentos estejam conectados por uma rede de comutação de pacotes, que introduz um atraso aleatório a cada pacote que trafega na rede. Nesta tese, é proposto um modelo de recuperação adaptativa de relógio capaz de sincronizar as frequências e as fases desses dispositivos, dentro de certos limites especificados de precisão. Esse método para atingir sincronização de frequência e de fase é baseado em medições dos tempos de chegada dos pacotes ao receptor, que são usados para controlar a dinâmica de um phase-locked loop (PLL) digital. O desempenho desse modelo é avaliado através de simulações numéricas realizadas considerando valores de parâmetros realistas. Os resultados indicam que esse esquema tem potencial para ser usado em aplicações práticas. / Consider a communication system in which a transmitter equipment sends fixed-size packets of data at a uniform rate to a receiver equipment. Consider also that these equipments are connected by a packet-switched network, which introduces a random delay to each packet. In this thesis, we propose an adaptive clock recovery scheme capable of synchronizing the frequencies and the phases of these devices, within specified limits of precision. This scheme for achieving frequency and phase synchronization is based on measurements of the packet arrival times at the receiver, which are used to control the dynamics of a digital phase-locked loop (PLL). The scheme performance is evaluated via numerical simulations performed by using realistic parameter values. The results suggest that this scheme has potential to be used in practical applications.