Efficiency and fairness issues in multihop networks supporting a guaranteed bandwidth transport service

The authors deal with the feasibility of a guaranteed bandwidth transport service (GBTS) on shuffle multihop networks (SMHNs). A simple resource allocation protocol, allowing a high flexibility in bandwidth allocation, is proposed. A performance study is carried out to verify the response of the SMHNs to GB traffic. In particular, the path blocking probability is evaluated by means of an analytical model in the cases of balanced and unbalanced loads. A comparison with the performance of similar LAN/MAN structures, i.e., simple ring and ring with spatial reuse, is carried out. A methodology to manage the resources to make the grade of service independent of the physical location of the network nodes is proposed and its impact on the network performance is evaluated. Some considerations on its actual implementation are presented.<>