optimal insensitive routing and bandwidth sharing in simple data networks
Many communication systems can be efficiently modelled using queueing networks with a stationary distribution that is insensitive to detailed traffic characteristics and depends on arrival rates and mean service requirements only. This robustness enables simple engineering rules and is thus of considerable practical interest. In this paper we extend previous results by relaxing the usual assumption of static routing and balanced service rates to account for both dynamic capacity allocation and dynamic load balancing. This relaxation is necessary to model systems like grid computing, for instance. Our results identify joint dynamic allocation and routing policies for single input reversible networks that are optimal for a wide range of performance metrics. A simple two-pass algorithm is presented for finding the optimal policy. The derived analytical results are applied in a number of simple numerical examples that illustrate their modelling potential.
insensitivity routing bandwidth allocation joint optimization