Aurel A. Lazar

Achieving network optima using Stackelberg routing strategies

In noncooperative networks users make control decisions that optimize their individual performance objectives. Nash equilibria characterize the operating points of such networks. Nash equilibria are generically inefficient and exhibit suboptimal network performance. Focusing on routing, a methodology is devised for overcoming this deficiency, through the intervention of the network manager. The manager controls part of the network flow, is aware of the noncooperative behavior of the users and performs its routing aiming at improving the overall system performance. The existence of maximally efficient strategies for the manager, i.e., strategies that drive the system into the global network optimum, is investigated. A maximally efficient strategy of the manager not only optimizes the overall performance of the network, but also induces an operating point that is efficient with respect to the performance of the individual users (Pareto efficiency). Necessary and sufficient conditions for the existence of a maximally efficient strategy are derived, and it is shown that they are met in many cases of practical interest. The maximally efficient strategy is shown to be unique and it is specified explicitly.

Real-time scheduling with quality of service constraints

Whether or not the introduction of traffic classes improves upon the performance of ATM networks is discussed within the framework provided by a class of networks that guarantees quality of service. To provide a meaningful comparison the authors define the concept of a schedulable region, a region in the space of loads for which the quality of service is guaranteed. The authors show the dependence of the schedulable region on the scheduling algorithm employed, quality of service parameters, and traffic statistics. An efficient real-time scheduling algorithm is introduced that substantially increases the schedulable region without incurring prohibitive complexity costs. The schedulable region associated with this algorithm is compared with the ones generated by the static priority scheduling algorithm and a variant of the minimum laxity threshold algorithm. The size and shape of the schedulable region is explored by means of simulations. >

Programming telecommunication networks

The move toward market deregulation and open competition has sparked a wave of serious introspection in the telecommunications service industry. Telecom providers and operators are now required to open up their primary revenue channels to competing industries. The competition for product differentiation increasingly depends on the level of sophistication, degree of flexibility, and speed of deployment of services that a future provider can offer. These factors in turn depend heavily on the flexibility of the software architecture in place in a providers operational infrastructure. Within this context, we examine the service architecture of two major global communication networks-the telephone network and the Internet and explore their weaknesses and strengths. We discuss the realization of an open programmable networking environment based on a new service architecture for advanced telecommunication services that overcomes the limitations of the existing networks. Our approach to network programmability stems from two angles-one conceptual, the other implementational. In the first, we attempt to develop a service model that is open and reflects the economic market structure of the future telecommunications service industry. Furthermore, we introduce an extended reference model for realizing the service marketplace and present it as a vehicle for creating multimedia services with QoS guarantees. In the second, we investigate the feasibility of engineering the reference model from an implementation standpoint. We describe a realization of the open programmable networking environment as a broadband kernel. Called xbind, the broadband kernel incorporates IP and CORBA technologies for signaling, management, and service creation, and ATM for transport. We also address some of the important QoS, performance, scalability, and implementation issues.

On the existence of equilibria in noncooperative optimal flow control

The existence of Nash equilibria in noncooperative flow control in a general product-form network shared by K users is investigated. The performance objective of each user is to maximize its average throughput subject to an upper bound on its average time-delay. Previous attempts to study existence of equilibria for this flow control model were not successful, partly because the time-delay constraints couple the strategy spaces of the individual users in a way that does not allow the application of standard equilibrium existence theorems from the game theory literature. To overcome this difficulty, a more general approach to study the existence of Nash equilibria for decentralized control schemes is introduced. This approach is based on directly proving the existence of a fixed point of the best reply correspondence of the underlying game. For the investigated flow control model, the best reply correspondence is shown to be a function, implicitly defined by means of K interdependent linear programs. Employing an appropriate definition for continuity of the set of optimal solutions of parameterized linear programs, it is shown that, under appropriate conditions, the best reply function is continuous. Brouwers theorem implies, then, that the best reply function has a fixed point.

The IEEE P1520 standards initiative for programmable network interfaces

This article discusses the need for standard software interfaces for programming of networks, specifically for service and signaling control, through programming interfaces. The objective is to enable the development of open signaling, control, and management applications as well as higher-level multimedia services on networks. The scope of this effort includes ATM switches, circuit switches, IP routers, and hybrid switches such as those that provide for fast switching of IP packets over an ATM backbone. The basic ideas represented herein are in the process of development as a standard for application programming interfaces for networks under IEEE Standards Project IEEE P1520.

Capacity allocation under noncooperative routing

The capacity allocation problem in a network that is to be shared by noncooperative users is considered. Each user decides independently upon its routing strategy so as to optimize its individual performance objective. The operating points of the network are the Nash equilibria of the underlying routing game,. The network designer aims to allocate link capacities, so that the resulting Nash equilibria are efficient, according to some systemwide performance criterion. In general, the solution of such design problems is complex and at times counterintuitive, since adding link capacity might lead to degradation of user performance. For systems of parallel links, we show that such paradoxes do not occur and that the capacity allocation problem has a simple and intuitive optimal solution that coincides with the solution in the single-user case.

Control of resources in broadband networks with quality of service guarantees

The design principles of resource control algorithms based on asynchronous time-sharing (ATS) are addressed, together with their interaction and cooperation in a wide area network environment, and a framework for evaluating the overall performance of the system is presented. The basic concepts of the ATS framework are presented, along with an overview of an architecture for joint scheduling and admission control. Scheduling mediates the low-level competition for service between cells of different classes; admission control regulates the acceptance or blocking of incoming traffic on a call-by-call basis. The performance of the scheduling algorithms is evaluated and the interaction between scheduling and admission control is quantified. A reference model for broadband networks is presented. >

Realizing a foundation for programmability of ATM networks with the binding architecture

A conceptual framework, called the binding model, for the creation, deployment and management of multimedia services on ATM-based broadband networks with end-to-end quality-of-service (QoS) guarantees is presented. The key function of the associated binding architecture is to provide an open programmable environment that facilitates the easy creation of flexible services. We describe the implementation of a prototype binding architecture called xbind as a middleware toolkit for building open programmable ATM networks. Finally, we present our initial experiences with experimenting and deploying xbind over an ATM testbed and highlight some of the lessons learned.

A separation principle between scheduling and admission control for broadband switching

A framework for joint scheduling and admission control in broadband switching systems based on a principle of separation between these two levels of control is developed. It is shown that an admission control strategy can be tailored to a particular mix of traffic by using high-level information from the scheduler. This principle is presented in the context of asynchronous time-sharing (ATS) in which explicit guarantees of cell-level and call-level quality of service (QOS) are given to several traffic classes. The separation principle allows the formulation of an optimal admission control policy that maximizes the expected system utility and maintains all QOS guarantees. Several heuristic admission control policies are considered and compared with the optimal policy. The admissible load region is introduced as a means of quantifying the capacity of a switch under the QOS constraints at the cell and call levels. Numerical calculations for a single MAGNET II switching node carrying two classes of real-time traffic are used to illustrate the effects of different scheduling and admission control policies on both the expected utility and the admissable load region. >

Modeling video sources for real-time scheduling

What is the impact of the autocorrelation of variable-bit-rate (VBR) sources on real-time scheduling algorithms? Our results show that the impact of long term, or interframe, autocorrelation is negligible, while the impact of short term, or intraframe, autocorrelation can be significant. Such results are essentially independent of the video coding scheme employed. To derive these results, video sequences are modeled as a collection of stationary subsequences called scenes. Within a scene, a statistical model is derived for both the sequence of frames and of slices. The model captures the distribution and the autocorrelation function of real-time video data. In previous work, the pseudoperiodicity of the slice level auto-correlation function made it difficult to develop a simple yet accurate model. We present a generalization of previous methods that can easily capture this pseudoperiodicity and is suited for modeling a greater variety of autocorrelation functions. By simply tuning a few parameters, the model reproduces the statistic behavior of sources with different types and levels of correlation on both the frame and the slice level.