A general method for the blocking analysis of networks with dependent links

We investigate the problem of how to combine arbitrary link blocking models into a network level model, without assuming the probabilistic independence of links, as opposed to previous approaches. The significance of the problem stems from a number of networking scenarios where the classical link independence assumption fails. We show that with a new system of fixed point equations it is possible to exactly compute the link and route availability probabilities and the exact network revenue, even in the presence of strongly dependent links. As a by-product of the method we also obtain a generalization of the product, and summation bounds of Whitt (1985) for arbitrary multiservice traffic scenarios.