Optimization Based Rate Control for Multipath Sessions

Abstract

In this paper, we consider the rate control problem for multipath sessionswith the objective ofmaximizing the total user (session) utility. This problem provides a frameworkin which flow control and routing are jointly optimized.We consider two cases of this problem, anddevelop two different rate control algorithms for these two cases.The first algorithm is an end-to-endrate control algorithm which requires, on the part of the user, explicitknowledge of the paths that the user uses.The second algorithm is a hop-by-hop rate control algorithm whichdoes not require the user to keep track of the paths it uses.Both the algorithms aredistributed and do not require the network to knowthe user utility functions.We analyze the convergence properties of these algorithms, anddiscuss how they can be implemented in a real network. Both of thesealgorithms are computationally simple, and have very low communication overhead.