Routing by controlled flooding in communication networks

A controlled flooding scheme for computer networks that retains the desired properties of flooding yet limits the extend of message flooding through the network is proposed. This is done by assigning costs for link traversal and allowing a packet to expend only a limited total cost for network traversal. A performance criterion is proposed, and the problem of assigning costs to links so that optimal performance is achieved is considered. The optimal assignment problem is characterized for networks with both homogeneous and heterogeneous traffic patterns. The latter, being computationally complex, can efficiently be solved only by heuristic algorithms, one of which is outlined