A generalized max-min rate allocation policy and its distributed implementation using the ABR flow control mechanism

We generalize the classical max-min rate allocation policy with the support of the minimum rate requirement and peak rate constraint for each connection. Since a centralized algorithm for the generalized max-min (GMM) rate allocation requires global information, which is difficult to maintain and manage in a large network, we develop a distributed protocol to achieve the GMM policy using the available bit rate (ABR) flow control mechanism. We give a proof that our distributed protocol converges to the GMM rate allocation through distributed and asynchronous iterations under any network configuration and any set of link distances