Fairness under sustained overload in a DQDB subnetwork with eraser nodes

Fairness criteria are proposed for the apportionment of throughput among the different stations for a DQDB (distributed-queue dual-bus) subnetwork involving eraser nodes under sustained overload. These criteria are based on maximizing the minimum throughput available to any station. Idealistic values of capacity apportionment for each active station are analytically computed by a recursive procedure. These idealistic values provide a quantitative standard against which the fairness of proposed eraser node protocols may be assessed. A numerical example is used to provide a detailed demonstration of the method for capacity apportionment