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A queueing analysis of max-min fairness, proportional fairness and balanced fairness

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Abstract

We compare the performance of three usual allocations, namely max-min fairness, proportional fairness and balanced fairness, in a communication network whose resources are shared by a random number of data flows. The model consists of a network of processor-sharing queues. The vector of service rates, which is constrained by some compact, convex capacity set representing the network resources, is a function of the number of customers in each queue. This function determines the way network resources are allocated. We show that this model is representative of a rich class of wired and wireless networks. We give in this general framework the stability condition of max-min fairness, proportional fairness and balanced fairness and compare their performance on a number of toy networks.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. France Telecom, France

    T. Bonald & A. Proutière

  2. Microsoft Research, Cambridge

    L. Massoulié

  3. Helsinki University of Technology, Finland

    J. Virtamo

Authors
  1. T. Bonald
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  2. L. Massoulié
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  3. A. Proutière
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  4. J. Virtamo
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Correspondence to T. Bonald.

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Bonald, T., Massoulié, L., Proutière, A. et al. A queueing analysis of max-min fairness, proportional fairness and balanced fairness. Queueing Syst 53, 65–84 (2006). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11134-006-7587-7

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