iREX: efficient automation architecture for the deployment of inter-domain QoS policy

The inter-domain resource exchange (iREX) architecture uses economic market mechanisms to automate the ad-hoc negotiation and deployment of end to end inter-domain quality of service policy among resource consumer and resource provider . In this paper, we explore iREX´s network load distribution by comparing its performance to a lower bound for network congestion in two ways. We first present an analytical model of iREX in terms of an online algorithm and analyze its efficiency via competitive analysis. Our main result shows that the efficiency loss of iREX with respect to monetary cost is upper-bounded by a factor of 8 K/2 K+1, where K s the number of deployments, provided affine linear price functions are used. When the price functions are used to model congestion in the network, this result implies upper bounds on the efficiency loss of iREX with respect to network congestion. We then complement the analytical model with a numerical study using simulations.with optimal solutions derived from unsplittable and splittable multi-commodity flow optimization models. Our numerical results show that for nominal to high traffic loads of 40% or more, iREX deviates a maximum of about 20% from the lower bound, while the current method deviates a maximum of 300%.