Instability of FIFO in session-oriented networks

  • Authors:
  • Matthew Andrews

  • Affiliations:
  • Bell Laboratories, 600-700 Mountain Avenue, Murray Hill, NJ

  • Venue:
  • Journal of Algorithms - Special issue: SODA 2000
  • Year:
  • 2004

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Abstract

We show that the First-In-First-Out (FIFO) scheduling discipline can be unstable in the (σ,ρ) regulated session model for packet-switched networks. In this model packets are injected into the network in fixed sessions. The total size of the session-i packets injected during the time interval [x, y) is at most σi + ρi(y - x) for some burst parameter σi and rate ρi. The sum of the rates of sessions passing through a server is at most the server speed.Previous work on FIFO stability either allowed for dynamically changing session paths or else assumed that session-i packets are injected at a constant rate. Our result shows that FIFO can be unstable for static paths as long as the injections into a session can be temporarily suspended.