Efficient exploration of availability models guided by failure distances

Recently, a method to bound the steady-state availability using the failure distance concept has been proposed. In this paper we refine that method by introducing state space exploration techniques. In the methods proposed here, the state space is incrementally generated based on the contributions to the steady-state availability band of the states in the frontier of the currently generated state space. Several state space exploration algorithms are evaluated in terms of bounds quality and memory and CPU time requirements. The more efficient seems to be a waved algorithm which expands transition groups. We compare our new methods with the method based on the failure distance concept without state exploration and a method proposed by Souza e Silva and Ochoa which uses state space exploration but does not use the failure distance concept. Using typical examples we show that the methods proposed here can be significantly more efficient than any of the previous methods.Postprint (published version

Best-Effort Patching for Multicast True VoD Service

A multicast Video-on-Demand (VoD) system allows clients to share a server stream by batching their requests, and hence, improves channel utilization. However, it is very difficult to equip such a VoD system with full support for interactive VCR functions which are important to a growing number of Internet applications. In order to eliminate service (admission) latency, patching was proposed to enable an existing multicast session to dynamically add new clients, and requests can be served without delay if patching channels are available. A true VoD (TVoD) service should support not only zero-delay client admission but also continuous VCR-like interactivity. However, the conventional patching is only suitable for admission control. We propose a new patching scheme, called Best-Effort Patching (BEP), that offers a TVoD service in terms of both request admission and VCR interactivity. Moreover, by using a novel dynamic merging algorithm, BEP significantly improves the efficiency of TVoD interactivity, especially for popular videos. We also model and evaluate the efficiency of the dynamic merging algorithm. It is shown that BEP outperforms the conventional TVoD interaction protocols.Peer Reviewedhttp://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/47328/1/11042_2005_Article_6851.pd

Flow assignment and packet scheduling for multipath networks

We propose a framework to study how to route packets efficiently in multipath communication networks. Two traffic congestion control techniques, namely, flow assignment and packet scheduling, have been investigated. The flow assignment mechanism defines an optimal splitting of data traffic on multiple disjoint paths. The resequencing delay and the usage of the resequencing buffer can be reduced significantly by properly scheduling the sending order of all packets, say, according to their expected arrival times at the destination. We consider a multiple-node M/M/1 tandem network with a delay line as the path model. When end-to-end path delays are all Gaussian distributed, our analytical results show that the techniques are very effective in reducing the average end-to-end path delay, the average packet resequencing delay, and the average resequencing buffer occupancy for various path configurations. These promising results can form a basis for designing future adaptive multipath protocols