Critical phenomena and finite-size scaling in communication networks?

Abstract

This paper presents a statistical mechanics-based approach to investigate critical phenomena and size scaling in communication networks. The qualitative nature of phase transitions in the underlying network systems is characterized; and its static and dynamic critical behaviors are identified. Effects of network size, different routing strategies have been analyzed. In all these analyses, phase transition is considered using a single intensive parameter of the communication network system, namely the external packet load. These problems have been investigated by extensive simulation on the model of a wired communication network.

Statistical Mechanics-Inspired Modeling of Heterogeneous Packet Transmission in Communication Networks

“…The phenomenon of congestion can be viewed as a continuous phase transition from a steady state to an unsteady state of network communications, which is characterized based on the concepts of equilibrium thermodynamics in this paper. Previous papers [11], [17] reported similar characterization based on the average rate of change of queue length; however, they required the assumption of infinite queue length. This assumption is removed in this paper to address the congestion problem in a more realistic scenario.…”