Admission control and routing: theory and practice

Emerging high speed Broadband Integrated Services Digital Networks (B-ISDN) will carry tra c for services such as video-on-demand and video teleconferencing, which require resource reservation along the path on which the tra c is sent. As a result, such networks will need e ective admission control algorithms. The simplest approach is to use greedy admission control; in other words, accept every resource request that can be physically accommodated. However, non-greedy admission control can lead to better network performance in many situations. This thesis develops several non-greedy algorithms that out-perform greedy admission control algorithms. Some of the algorithms are evaluated using simulations while others are evaluated using the theory of competitive analysis. The thesis considers both unicast communication (connections with two end-points) and multicast communication (connection with more than two end-points). The results of the thesis have already had a direct in uence on the algorithms used in several commercial networks. Thesis Supervisor: Nancy A. Lynch Title: Professor of Computer Science Thesis Supervisor: David D. Clark Title: Senior Research Scientist Thesis Supervisor: Baruch Awerbuch Title: Professor of Computer Science, Johns Hopkins University