Hostname: page-component-78c5997874-4rdpn Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-10T21:14:55.108Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false

A queueing network analysis of dynamic reconfigurability in a hierarchical information network

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  14 July 2016

Abstract

Hierarchical information networks are important in applications where the information management must support an existing tree-structured organization. Embedded computer-communication systems in military applications, with a dominant hierarchical command structure, are the most prominent examples. Also typical of such applications is the variability in message demand (both sources and intensity) depending on the external conditions encountered by the encapsulating system (the system supported by the embedded computer-communication system). Using a queueing network model for a hierarchical information network, we compare the effect of limited dynamic reconfiguration on expected transmission delays. The limited reconfigurability takes the form of apex transition among a proper subset of the communication nodes designated as the apex candidate set. Each apex candidate can assume the ultimate position under designated conditions. This network architecture is called a dynamic hierarchy. The model includes N + 1 nodes (0, …, N) with 0 identifying the apex node. We assume that message processing at each node is described by an M/M/1 model (single server with Poisson arrivals and exponential service times). Further message transfers among the nodes are served by communication links which also behave as M/M/1 queues.

Two distinctive features characterize the queueing network model:

1. The assignment of a set of weights to the nodes dependent on the hierarchical level reflects the increasing importance of information as it is transferred to higher levels.

2. The dynamic hierarchy requires a communications protocol that partitions the analysis of network delay into three periods: regular operation, reconfiguration, and adjustment. Characterization of the performance of the dynamic hierarchy entails the description of message transmission delay as a composite of the three periods.

MSC classification

Type
Part 3 Queueing Theory
Copyright
Copyright © Applied Probability Trust 1994 

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Balachandran, K. R. (1973) Control policies for a single server system. Management Sci. 19, 10131018.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Davis, R. M. (1970) The national biomedical communications network as a developing structure. Conference on Interlibrary Communications and Information Networks, Warrenton, VA.Google Scholar
Derrick, E. J. and Nance, R. E. (1986) Local area networks and the dynamic hierarchy: a tutorial. Technical Report SRC-86-003, Systems Research Center, Virginia Tech., Blacksburg, VA.Google Scholar
Green, P. E. (1979) An introduction to network architectures and protocols. IBM Syst. J. 18, 202222.Google Scholar
Moose, R. L. Jr. (1989) Modeling networks with dynamic topologies. ORSA J. Computing 1, 223231.Google Scholar
Nagappan, S. (1986) Protocol Design and Analysis for a Dynamic Hierarchical Local Area Network. M.S. Thesis, Department of Computer Science, Virginia Tech, Blacksburg, VA.Google Scholar
Nance, R. E. (1979) Distributed computing: an overview. Presentation Series at the Naval Surface Weapons Center.Google Scholar
Nance, R. E. and Moose, R. L. Jr. (1988) Link capacity assignment in dynamic hierarchical networks. Comput. Netw. ISDN Syst. 15, 189202.Google Scholar
Nance, R. E., Korfhage, R. R. and Bhat, U. N. (1972) Information networks: definitions and message transfer models. J. Amer. Soc. Inf. Sci. 23, 237247.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Nance, R. E., Moose, R. L. Jr. and Foutz, R. V. (1987) A statistical technique for comparing heuristics: an example from capacity assignment strategies in computer network design. Comm. Assoc. Comput. Mach. 30, 430442.Google Scholar
Stallings, W. (1985) Data and Computer Communications. Macmillan, New York.Google Scholar
Venkateshwaran, A., Nance, R. E. and Balci, O. (1988) Dynamically reconfigurable networks: concept evaluation through simulation. Proc. IMACS 12th World Congress on Scientific Computation 3, 460463. Paris.Google Scholar