A pricing methodology for resource allocation and routing in integrated-services networks with quality of service requirements

Abstract

Abstract. We present an approach to the admission control, resource allocation and routing problem in connection-oriented networks that o¤er multiple services to users. Users' preferences are summarized by means of their utility functions, and each user is allowed to request more than one type of service. Each requested service may be delivered over one of many possible routes. Multiple types of resources are allocated at each link along the path of a connection. We assume that the relation between Quality of Service (QoS) and resource allocation is given, and we incorporate it as a constraint into a static optimization problem. The objective is to determine the amount of required resources and route for each type of service to maximize a welfare function that is equal to the sum of the users' utilities. We describe a competitive market economy that achieves the objective and satisfies the informational constraints imposed by the nature of the decentralized resource allocation and routing problem.

An approach to rate allocation in multicast

“…We have presented extensive discussion and critique of features 1, 2 and 4 in [37,38]. The assumptions made on the users' utility functions are the typical ones appearing in analysis of economic optimization problems.…”

“…Utility maximizing is more general because rate allocation with the fairness property are utility maximizing when the utility has a special form [4,24,32,35]. Although utility maximization has been extensively studied within the context of unicast rate allocation to achieve congestion control [1,13,16,18,20,21,23,37,38], relatively fewer studies approached the multicast rate allocation problem via solving a general utility maximization formulation, with the notable examples being [12,14]. In [12] the authors propose a distributed and scalable algorithm for the problem, whose solution is based on dual methods.…”

Decentralized Resource Allocation Mechanisms in Networks: Realization and Implementation

“…Otherwise the auctioneer changes the prices λ of resources according to a specific mechanism based on Scarf's algorithm which is described in detail in [125,129,132], announces new prices, say λ , and the process is repeated from Step 2 on.…”

“…In the allocation mechanism described above (see [129] for details), two types of messages are exchanged among agents:…”

“…Utility maximizing is more general because rate allocation with the fairness property is utility maximizing when the utility has a special form [23,86,119,122]. Although utility maximization has been extensively studied within the context of unicast rate allocation to achieve congestion control [11,58,62,64,67,68,75,129,132], relatively fewer studies approached the multirate multicast allocation problem via a general utility maximization formulation, with the notable exceptions being [23,57,59]. Problem Max 1 together with Assumptions 13.3.2-13.3.2 and constraints Max 1.a, Max 1.b, P.f-P.h is similar in spirit to those formulated and analyzed in [23,57,59].…”