Models and approximations for the fast calculation of packet delay variation

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The information transmitted over the Internet, say from a web server to a user, needs some time to reach the user. Anybody who has watched video on the Internet has noticed that it takes a little while before the picture actually appears on the screen. It also turns out that this delay is not always the same but varies around some average value. This is called the ``jitter'' of the transmission and it can be the cause of poor service, say for instance for a two-way video conference, where it could make the image and sound freeze or even disappear completely. Operators therefore need to design their networks to take this jitter into account and try to control it as much as possible. This in turn means that their design tools must be able to actually compute the value of this jitter whenever a new configuration is proposed. This calculation has to be done a large number of times in a given planning so that one needs techniques that are both fast and accurate. The objective of this project is to find calculation methods that meet these two requirements. They will then be included into network design tools which will give operators an efficient mean to plan networks with better quality of service and lower cost. This will also allow us to extend our research on the design of various kinds of networks to take jitter into account thereby increasing their accuracy and effectiveness. In the longer term, this research will improve the position of canadian companies in the world telecommunication market and re-inforce the role of Canada as a leader in the field.