Abstract:

Based on the empirical envelope of a compressed video stream, a traffic description model was developed. With aid of the model, the data rate and burst features could be denoted by all of the tangent points of the empirical envelope. To make the model more practical in use, an algorithm was proposed to remove the redundancy within the description results. Since the empirical envelope was the only tightest envelope, the traffic features of a compressed video stream could be described completely and uniquely. The drawbacks of the traffic description models used in nowadays network resource management could be resolved with the proposed model. It is also showed how the proposed model can be applied to determine the optimal bandwidth to be reserved when requesting the guaranteed service via RSVP（resource reservation protocol）.

Key words: traffic description, empirical envelope, video communication, guaranteed service, resource reservation protocol