Network calculus offers powerful tools to analyze the performances in communication networks, in particular to obtain deterministic bounds. This theory is based on a strong mathematical ground, notably by the use of (min,+) algebra. However, the algorithmic aspects of this theory have not been much addressed yet. This paper is an attempt to provide some efficient algorithms implementing network calculus operations for some classical functions. Some functions which are often used are the piecewise affine functions which ultimately have a constant growth. As a first step towards algorithmic design, we present a class containing these functions and closed under the main network calculus operations (min, max, +, −, convolution, subadditive closure, deconvolution): the piecewise affine functions which are ultimately pseudo-periodic. They can be finitely described, which enables us to propose some algorithms for each of the network calculus operations. We finally analyze their computational complexity.

Network Calculus theory aims at evaluating worst-case performances in communication networks. It provides methods to analyze models where the traffic and the services are constrained by some minimum and/or maximum envelopes (arrival/service curves). While new applications come forward, a challenging and inescapable issue remains open: achieving tight analyzes of networks with aggregate multiplexing.The theory offers efficient methods to bound maximum end-to-end delays or local backlogs. However as shown in a recent breakthrough paper [28], those bounds can be arbitrarily far from the exact worstcase values, even in seemingly simple feed-forward networks (two flows and two servers), under blind multiplexing (i.e. no information about the scheduling policies, except FIFO per flow). For now, only a network with three flows and three servers, as well as a tandem network called sink tree, have been analyzed tightly.We describe the first algorithm which computes the maximum end-toend delay for a given flow, as well as the maximum backlog at a server, for any feed-forward network under blind multiplexing, with piecewise affine concave arrival curves and piecewise affine convex service curves. Its computational complexity may look expensive (possibly super-exponential), but we show that the problem is intrinsically difficult (NP-hard). Fortunately we show that in some cases, like tandem networks with cross-traffic interfering along intervals of servers, the complexity becomes polynomial. We also compare ourselves to the previous approaches and discuss the problems left open.

In this paper we show how Network Calculus can be used to compute the optimal route for a flow (w.r.t. end-to-end guarantees on the delay or the backlog) in a network in the presence of cross-traffic. When cross-traffic is independent, the computation is shown to boild down to a functional shortest path problem. When cross-traffic perturbates the main flow over more than one node, then the "Pay Multiplexing Only Once" phenomenon makes the computation more involved. We provide an efficient algorithm to compute the service curve available for the main flow and show how to adapt the shortest path algorithm in this case.