Performance analysis of end‐to‐end transfer delays for multipacket messages in packet‐switching networks

Abstract When a long message such as file is to be transmitted in a packet‐switching network, the source node segments the message into a number of packets and the packets are transmitted to the network. Those packets are transferred to the destination node through several intermediate nodes and then reassembled into the message. This paper models the packet‐switching network into a tandem queueing network. By analyzing the model, the performance of message transfer in the packet‐switching network is evaluated. The discrete‐time system is considered in the analysis. An algorithm is presented which strictly derives the distribution of time needed in the transfer of all packets composing the message from the source node to the destination node (message transfer time). In the numerical example, it is assumed that the service time at each node is composed of the packet processing time and the packet transmission time. The effect of the packet size on the mean and variance of the message transfer delay is analyzed. The case where the message size and the number of intermediate nodes are increased also is considered.