Universal packet routing algorithms

Abstract

The packet-routing problem is examined in a network-independent context. The goal is to devise a strategy for routing that works well for a wide variety of networks. To achieve this goal, the routing problem is partitioned into two stages: a path-selection stage and a scheduling stage. In the first stage, paths for the packets are found with small maximum distance and small maximum congestion. Once the paths are fixed, both are lower bounds on the time required to deliver the packets. In the second stage, a schedule is found for the movement of each packet along its path so that no two packets traverse the same edge at the same time and the total time and maximum queue size required to route all of the packets to their destinations are minimized. The second stage is more challenging and is the focus of this study.<>