Preemption control of multi-class loss networks

This thesis addresses the analysis and optimization of preemption in multi-class loss networks. Preemption, admission control and rate adaptation, are control mechanisms that enable loss network operators to provide quality of service (QoS) guarantees for admitted calls. This research includes two parts: i) performance characterization of a two parallel link loss network servicing multiple classes of calls under a speci c preemption and admission policy, and ii) preemption and admission control policy analysis for a single loss link servicing two classes of calls.In Part I, we consider a two parallel link multi-class loss network, where a call may preempt, if necessary, any calls with lower priorities and may in turn be preempted by any calls with higher priorities. The preemption policy permits both preemption from a preferred link to a backup link if possible, and eviction from either link if necessary. Our contributions in this part include: i) characterizing the rates of each class causing preemption of active lower priority calls, and therates of each class being preempted by an arriving higher priority call in Erlang-B functions when all classes share a common service rate; ii) simple expressions of these preemption rates through uniform asymptotic approximation; and iii) asymptotic approximation of these preemption rates using nearly completely decomposable (NCD) Markov chain techniques when classes have individual service rates.After analyzing the performance of a typical policy, we would also like to study various policies. In Part II, we analyze di erent preemption and admission control policies for a two-class loss link where per-class revenue is earned per unit time for each active call, and an instantaneous preemption cost is incurred whenever the preemption mechanism is employed. Our contributions in this part include: i) showing that under reasonable reward models, if we always preempt when the link is full, then it is better not to preempt at non-full states; ii) a su cient condition under which the average revenue of optimal preemption policy without admission control exceeds that of optimal admission control policy without preemption, which are established via policy improvement theorems fromstochastic dynamic programming.Ph.D., Computer Engineering -- Drexel University, 201

Energy-Efficient Flow Scheduling and Routing with Hard Deadlines in Data Center Networks

The power consumption of enormous network devices in data centers has emerged as a big concern to data center operators. Despite many traffic-engineering-based solutions, very little attention has been paid on performance-guaranteed energy saving schemes. In this paper, we propose a novel energy-saving model for data center networks by scheduling and routing "deadline-constrained flows" where the transmission of every flow has to be accomplished before a rigorous deadline, being the most critical requirement in production data center networks. Based on speed scaling and power-down energy saving strategies for network devices, we aim to explore the most energy efficient way of scheduling and routing flows on the network, as well as determining the transmission speed for every flow. We consider two general versions of the problem. For the version of only flow scheduling where routes of flows are pre-given, we show that it can be solved polynomially and we develop an optimal combinatorial algorithm for it. For the version of joint flow scheduling and routing, we prove that it is strongly NP-hard and cannot have a Fully Polynomial-Time Approximation Scheme (FPTAS) unless P=NP. Based on a relaxation and randomized rounding technique, we provide an efficient approximation algorithm which can guarantee a provable performance ratio with respect to a polynomial of the total number of flows.Comment: 11 pages, accepted by ICDCS'1

Fair Bandwidth Allocation in Optical Burst Switching Networks

Optical burst switching (OBS) is a promising switching technology for next-generation Internet backbone networks. One of the design challenges is how to provide fair bandwidth allocation in OBS networks; the schemes proposed for general store-and-forward IP switching networks can not be used because of the non-buffering and un-fully utilized bandwidth characteristics of OBS networks. We propose a rate fairness preemption (RFP) scheme to achieve approximately weighted max-min fair bandwidth allocation in OBS networks. We present an analysis of the burst loss probability in RFP-based OBS networks. The analysis and simulation results show that the RFP scheme provides fair bandwidth allocation in OBS network

Datacenter Traffic Control: Understanding Techniques and Trade-offs

Datacenters provide cost-effective and flexible access to scalable compute and storage resources necessary for today's cloud computing needs. A typical datacenter is made up of thousands of servers connected with a large network and usually managed by one operator. To provide quality access to the variety of applications and services hosted on datacenters and maximize performance, it deems necessary to use datacenter networks effectively and efficiently. Datacenter traffic is often a mix of several classes with different priorities and requirements. This includes user-generated interactive traffic, traffic with deadlines, and long-running traffic. To this end, custom transport protocols and traffic management techniques have been developed to improve datacenter network performance. In this tutorial paper, we review the general architecture of datacenter networks, various topologies proposed for them, their traffic properties, general traffic control challenges in datacenters and general traffic control objectives. The purpose of this paper is to bring out the important characteristics of traffic control in datacenters and not to survey all existing solutions (as it is virtually impossible due to massive body of existing research). We hope to provide readers with a wide range of options and factors while considering a variety of traffic control mechanisms. We discuss various characteristics of datacenter traffic control including management schemes, transmission control, traffic shaping, prioritization, load balancing, multipathing, and traffic scheduling. Next, we point to several open challenges as well as new and interesting networking paradigms. At the end of this paper, we briefly review inter-datacenter networks that connect geographically dispersed datacenters which have been receiving increasing attention recently and pose interesting and novel research problems.Comment: Accepted for Publication in IEEE Communications Surveys and Tutorial

A Constraint Programming Approach for Non-Preemptive Evacuation Scheduling

Large-scale controlled evacuations require emergency services to select evacuation routes, decide departure times, and mobilize resources to issue orders, all under strict time constraints. Existing algorithms almost always allow for preemptive evacuation schedules, which are less desirable in practice. This paper proposes, for the first time, a constraint-based scheduling model that optimizes the evacuation flow rate (number of vehicles sent at regular time intervals) and evacuation phasing of widely populated areas, while ensuring a nonpreemptive evacuation for each residential zone. Two optimization objectives are considered: (1) to maximize the number of evacuees reaching safety and (2) to minimize the overall duration of the evacuation. Preliminary results on a set of real-world instances show that the approach can produce, within a few seconds, a non-preemptive evacuation schedule which is either optimal or at most 6% away of the optimal preemptive solution.Comment: Submitted to the 21st International Conference on Principles and Practice of Constraint Programming (CP 2015). 15 pages + 1 reference pag

Advanced information processing system: The Army fault tolerant architecture conceptual study. Volume 1: Army fault tolerant architecture overview

Digital computing systems needed for Army programs such as the Computer-Aided Low Altitude Helicopter Flight Program and the Armored Systems Modernization (ASM) vehicles may be characterized by high computational throughput and input/output bandwidth, hard real-time response, high reliability and availability, and maintainability, testability, and producibility requirements. In addition, such a system should be affordable to produce, procure, maintain, and upgrade. To address these needs, the Army Fault Tolerant Architecture (AFTA) is being designed and constructed under a three-year program comprised of a conceptual study, detailed design and fabrication, and demonstration and validation phases. Described here are the results of the conceptual study phase of the AFTA development. Given here is an introduction to the AFTA program, its objectives, and key elements of its technical approach. A format is designed for representing mission requirements in a manner suitable for first order AFTA sizing and analysis, followed by a discussion of the current state of mission requirements acquisition for the targeted Army missions. An overview is given of AFTA's architectural theory of operation