This volume is a compendium of papers presented during the NATO Workshop which took place in Capri, Italy, October 12-18, 1986 on the general subject of "Flow Control of Congested Networks: The Case of Data Processing and Transportation", and of which we acted as co-chairmen. The focus of the workshop was on flow control methodologies, as applied to preventing or reducing congestion on: (1) data communication networks; (2) urban transportation networks; and (3) air traffic control systems. The goals of the workshop included: review of the state-of-the-art of flow control methodologies, in general, and in each of the three application areas; identification of similarities and differences in the objective functions, modeling approaches and mathematics used in the three areas; examination of opportunities for "technology transfers" and for future interactions among researchers in the three areaso These goals were pursued through individual presentations of papers on current research by workshop participants and, in the cases of the second and third goals, through a number of open-ended discussion and-review sessions which were interspersed throughout the workshop's programmeD The full texts or extended summaries of all but a few of the papers given at the workshop are included in this volume.

Congestion Control in Data Transmission Networks details the modeling and control of data traffic in communication networks. It shows how various networking phenomena can be represented in a consistent mathematical framework suitable for rigorous formal analysis. The monograph differentiates between fluid-flow continuous-time traffic models, discrete-time processes with constant sampling rates, and sampled-data systems with variable discretization periods. The authors address a number of difficult real-life problems, such as: optimal control of flows with disparate, time-varying delay; the existence of source and channel nonlinearities; the balancing of quality of service and fairness requirements; and the incorporation of variable rate allocation policies. Appropriate control mechanisms which can handle congestion and guarantee high throughput in various traffic scenarios (with different networking phenomena being considered) are proposed. Systematic design procedures using sound control-theoretic foundations are adopted. Since robustness issues are of major concern in providing efficient data-flow regulation in today’s networks, sliding-mode control is selected as the principal technique to be applied in creating the control solutions. The controller derivation is given extensive analytical treatment and is supported with numerous realistic simulations. A comparison with existing solutions is also provided. The concepts applied are discussed in a number of illustrative examples, and supported by many figures, tables, and graphs walking the reader through the ideas and introducing their relevance in real networks. Academic researchers and graduate students working in computer networks and telecommunications and in control (especially time-delay systems and discrete-time optimal and sliding-mode control) will find this text a valuable assistance in ensuring smooth data-flow within communications networks.

This book constitutes the refereed proceedings of the 8th International IFIP-TC6 Networking Conference, NETWORKING 2009, held in Aachen, Germany, in May 2000. The 48 revised full papers and 28 work-in-progress papers were carefully reviewed and selected from 232 submissions for inclusion in the book. The papers are organized in topical sections on Ad-Hoc Networks: Sensor Networks; Modelling: Routing & Queuing; Peer to peer: Analysis; Quality of Service: New Protocols; Wireless Networks: Planning & Performance; Applications and Services: System Evaluation; Peer to peer: Topology; Next Generation Internet: Transport Protocols; Wireless Networks: Protocols; Next Generation Internet: Network & Transport; Modelling and Performance Analysis: Infrastructure; Applications and Services: Streaming & Multimedia; Wireless Networks: Availability; Modelling and Performance Evaluation: Network Architectures; Peer to peer: Frameworks & Architectures; All-IP Networking: Frameworks; Next Generation Internet; Performance and Wireless.

* Recommended by T.Basar, SC series ed. * This text addresses a new, active area of research and fills a gap in the literature. * Bridges mathematics, engineering, and computer science; considers stochastic and optimization aspects of congestion control in Internet data transfers. * Useful as a supplementary text & reference for grad students with some background in control theory; also suitable for researchers.

Network Optimization and Control is the ideal starting point for a mature reader with little background on the subject of congestion control to understand the basic concepts underlying network resource allocation.

The book presents a comprehensive view on Flow-Aware Networking. It starts with a brief overview of the known QoS architectures based on the concept of a flow. Then, the original FAN concept is presented, along with its variations proposed by the authors. The next chapter covers a very valuable feature of the FAN architecture, namely its ability to assure net neutrality. The chapters that follow will discuss, in detail, a variety of issues making the FAN concept implementable, including congestion control, fairness, resilience to failures, service differentiation and degradation. The final chapter presents the test implementation of the FAN router, including the environment used and performance tests. Chapters are supplemented with problems to solve, along with their solutions. The pedagogical character of the book is supported by a number of illustrative examples contained in most of the chapters. At the end of the book, a glossary of the key terms is included, along with a comprehensive bibliography. Flow-based traffic management is currently becoming a mainstream. There is plenty of Quality of Service (QoS) techniques based on flows. Software-Defined Networking with its dominant protocol OpenFlow also follows this trend. Flow-Aware Networking (FAN) is a promising QoS architecture. Information on FAN can be found in various research papers. It is, therefore highly scattered. This book gathers practically all relevant information regarding FAN and puts it together. Quality of Service assurance is one of the key challenges of today’s Internet. The existing approaches to provide QoS do not meet expectations of network operators, managers and users although numerous efforts in this area have been reported. One of the most promising concepts is the Flow-Aware Network (FAN). FAN can play a key role in assuring the net neutrality, smoothly combining interests of all the involved parties. The authors of the proposal have been involved in FAN research practically since its inception at the start of the 21st century. The book reports the wide experiences the authors accumulated in the subject area during the work on common FAN-related projects conducted with the team of James Roberts that proposed the original FAN concept as well as other leading research groups in Europe and the USA. One of the aims of the book is to accompany courses taught by the authors.