Directed virtual path layouts in ATM networks

Abstract

This article investigates the problem of designing virtual di-paths (VPs) in a directed ATM model, in which the flow of information in the two directions of a link are not identical. On top of a given physical network we construct directed VPs. Routing in the physical network is done using these VPs. Given the capacity of each physical link (the maximum number of VPs that can pass through the link) the problem consists in defining a set of VPs to minimize the diameter of the virtual network formed by these VPs (the maximum number of VPs traversed by any single message). For the most popular types of simple networks, namely the path, the cycle, the grid, the tori, the complete k-ary tree, and the general tree, we present optimal or near optimal lower and upper bounds on the virtual diameter as a function of the capacity.