Resource allocation in general queueing networks with applications to data networks

P.K. Pollett

We consider the problem of how best to assign the service effort in a queueing network in order to minimise the expected delay under a cost constraint. We shall study systems with several types of customers, general service time distributions, stochastic or deterministic routing, and a variety of service regimes. For such networks there are typically no analytical formulae for the waiting time distributions. Thus, we shall approach the optimal allocation problem using approximation techniques, in particular, the residual-life approximation for the distribution of queueing times. This work generalises results of Kleinrock, who studied networks with exponentially distributed service times. We illustrate our results with reference to data networks.

Keywords: Queueing networks; optimization

Acknowledgement: This worked was funded by the Australian Research Council.

The author:

• Phil Pollett, Discipline of Mathematics, The University of Queensland. pkp@maths.uq.edu.au

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Last modified: 23rd August 2001