On the notion of max-min fairness and its applications to routing optimization - Keynote speach by prof. Michal Pioro

Michał Pióro
Warsaw University of Technology
http://ztit.tele.pw.edu.pl/en/head.html

Slides

The key-note slides in pdf format

Abstract

The notion of fairness is a natural means for characterizing objectives of various design problems in communication network design, For example, routing of elastic traffic in the Internet should be fair in terms of bandwidth allocated to individual traffic demands. One fairness principle that can be applied is called max-min fairness (MMF) and requires that the worst bandwidth allocation is maximized and the solution is then extended with maximization of the second worst allocation, the third one, and so on. Due to lexicographic maximization of ordered objectives, the MMF solution concept cannot be tackled by the standard optimization model, i.e., a mathematical program. However, a sequential lexicographic optimization procedure can be formulated for that purpose. The basic procedure is applicable only for convex models, thus it allows to deal only with relatively simple optimization problems but fails if practical discrete restrictions commonly arising in the communications network context are to be taken into account. Then, however, alternative sequential approaches allowing to solve non-convex MMF problems can be used. In the presentation we discuss solution algorithms for basic convex and non-convex MMF optimization problems related to fair routing in communications networks. The presented material is not commonly known to the community and therefore can be helpful in developing relevant optimization models for researchers working in network design.

About the speaker

Michał Pióro completed his Ph.D. degree in 1979, his habilitation degree in 1990, and obtained the Polish State Professorship in 2002 (all in telecommunications). He is a full professor and Head of Department of Data Networks and Switching at the Institute of Telecommunications, Warsaw University of Technology (Poland). At the same time he is a professor at the Department of Electrical and Information Technology, Lund University (Sweden). Professor Pióro has lead many national and international research projects in telecommunications network modeling, optimization and performance analysis. He is an author of more than 150 research papers in the field. He also wrote several books, including the monograph ''Routing, Flow, and Capacity Design of Communication and Computer Networks'', Morgan Kaufmann Publishers (imprint of Elsevier), 2004. Prof. Pióro is a member of international research bodies and technical program committees of several major conferences. He is a technical editor of IEEE Communications Magazine.


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