(A) distributed max-min flow control algorithm for multirate multicast flows

Abstract

Several algorithms achieving fair rate allocation for multirate multicast flows have been proposed, but most of them are complex and unstable in the sense that they require a switch to keep many states and can not prevent the fluctuation of output queue length. We propose a control-theoretic max-min fair rate allocation algorithm for multirate multicast flows with minimum rate guarantee. The proposed algorithm doesn’t achieve only inter-and intra-session fairness keeping fewer states compared to the other algorithms, but also makes the output queue stable, which means it makes the output queue length converge to a target value at steady state. Our multirate multicast algorithm includes the consolidation algorithm which improves the transient response of the closed-loop system built up by the multirate multicast algorithm. We verify through simulations that our algorithm achieves the max-min fair rate allocation and is asymptotically stable if the stability condition, which we found through the fluid model analysis, is satisfied.