ADAPTIVE DISTRIBUTED METHOD FOR CALCULATING SYSTEM-OPTIMAL ROUTES IN PACKET-SWITCHING COMMUNICATIONS NETWORKS

摘要

The invention relates to an adaptive and distributed method for conducting a system-optimal route selection in packet-switching communications networks, which can be interpreted as a cooperation of two recurrent neuronal networks. The problem of conducting a system-optimal route selection involves the directing of data packets with a known source-destination relationship under the allocation of specified routes through the network to their destination routers as to minimize a system-wide cost function or objective function whereby adhering to certain predetermined general requirements (max. storage space of the router computer, service rates, etc.). The method is adaptive since it can continuously adapt the routes to the current load pattern of the network, and is distributed since each router computer of the network executes only local operations and, as a result, is required to communicate only with its closest directly connected neighbors.