Tandem queueing networks with neighbor blocking and back-offs

Ton Hellings (1) , Sem C. Borst (1, 2) , Johan S. H. Leeuwaarden (1, 3)

1 Department of mathematics and computing science [Eindhoven]
2 Alcatel-Lucent Bell Labs
3 EURANDOM - European Institute for Statistics, Probability, Stochastic Operations Research and its Applications

We introduce a novel class of tandem queueing networks which arise in modeling the congestion behavior of wireless multi-hop networks with distributed medium access control. These models provide valuable insight in how the network performance in terms of throughput depends on the back-off mechanism that governs the competition among neighboring nodes for access to the medium. The models fall at the interface between classical queueing networks and interacting particle systems, and give rise to high-dimensional stochastic processes that challenge existing methodologies. We present various open problems and conjectures, which are supported by partial results for special cases and limit regimes as well as simulation experiments.

Mots clés: Wireless networks; Tandem queues; Neighbor blocking; Interacting particle systems; Stability; Fluid limit; High-dimensional stochastic processes; 60K25; 60J27; 82C22

Domaines: Réseaux et télécommunications [cs.NI]

Ton Hellings, Sem C. Borst, Johan S. H. Leeuwaarden. Tandem queueing networks with neighbor blocking and back-offs. Queueing Systems, 2011, 68 (3-4), pp.321-331. ⟨10.1007/s11134-011-9239-9⟩. ⟨hal-00839853⟩