Distributed channel allocation in reconfigurable communication networks

A reconfigurable communication network in which the capacity of its multiple-channel links can by dynamically adjusted through activating different numbers of channels to comply with traffic fluctuations has been proposed previously (C.Y Chao and M. Ilyas, 1988). It has been shown that the reconfigurable network can perform significantly better than networks with fixed link capacity. Here, a distributed channel allocation algorithm which can be applied to the reconfigurable network is developed. The algorithm requires local traffic statistics only and converges to an optimum configuration in most cases. The number of iterations is bounded from above by the maximum number of transmitters at each node. It is shown that good delay performance can be achieved by using the channel allocation algorithm and a simple fixed routing algorithm. It is concluded that this fact makes the proposed reconfigurable network architecture very attractive