Uncertain metrics applied to QoS multipath routing

Abstract

In the paper we present the new method of multipath routing that supports the quality of service (QoS). The idea of the method is based on the well-known minimum delay routing principle [R. Gallager (1977)], but the routing problem considered in the paper applies to the most frequently encountered case of communication networks with the TCP-traffic dominating in all links, rather than UDP multimedia traffic. In our approach we assume that the values of metrics in all links are not known exactly, but we consider them as values with uncertainty. Such approach, together with associated forwarding method allows to assimilate well known routing algorithms to the optimal behavior i.e. the best possible throughput for data streams. In this paper only unidirectional routing is considered.