Diffusion-Type Autonomous Decentralized Flow Control for End-to-End Flow in High-Speed Networks

Chisa TAKANO
Masaki AIDA

Publication
IEICE TRANSACTIONS on Communications   Vol.E88-B    No.4    pp.1559-1567
Publication Date: 2005/04/01
Online ISSN: 
DOI: 10.1093/ietcom/e88-b.4.1559
Print ISSN: 0916-8516
Type of Manuscript: PAPER
Category: Network
Keyword: 
flow control,  diffusion,  autonomous decentralized control,  high speed network,  

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Summary: 
We have proposed diffusion-type flow control as a solution for the extremely time-sensitive flow control required for high-speed networks. In our method of flow control, we design in advance simple and appropriate rules for action at the nodes, and these automatically result in stable and efficient network-wide performance through local interactions between nodes. Specifically, we design the rules for the flow control action of each node that simulates the local interaction of a diffusion phenomenon, in order that the packet density is diffused throughout the network as soon as possible. However, in order to make a comparison with other flow control methods under the same conditions, the evaluations in our previous studies used a closed network model, in which the number of packets was unchanged. This paper investigates the performance of our flow control method for an end-to-end flow, in order to show that it is still effective in more realistic networks. We identify the key issues associated with our flow control method when applied to an open network model, and demonstrate a two-step solution. First, we consider the rule for flow control action at the boundary node, which is the ingress node in the network, and propose a rule to achieve smooth diffusion of the packet density. Secondly, we introduce a shaping mechanism, which keeps the number of packets in the network at an appropriate level.