Multi-constrained Network Occupancy Optimization

Abstract

Increasingly different types of information are required in systems, resulting in the diverse and widespread use of networks. The increase in the number of devices on networks significantly increases network traffic and network load, limiting network propagation speed, and increasing the possibility of collisions and lost information. One way to identify the size of the network load is by measuring the network occupancy. Although speeds are constantly increasing, some parts of the network can still become the bottleneck. Therefore, it is always desirable to minimize network occupancy. In this paper, an approach for the multi-constrained network occupancy optimization is presented. The objective is to minimize network occupancy by optimizing the packing process. The problem is identified as a bin packing problem, which is strongly NP-hard. The modification of the Best-Fit Decreasing algorithm is implemented to find the best solution while satisfying multiple constraints. The approach considers grouping signals that are sent to different controllers in the same packages. The analysis is done on the medium-sized plant model, and different topologies were tested. The results show that the proposed solution gives less network occupancy compared to the reference case. Also, by changing the relative placement of network nodes, a significant reduction in network occupancy is achieved.