Flow admission, routing and fairness in robust multi-segment mobile wireless networks

Flows transported across mobile ad hoc wireless networks suffer from route breakups caused by nodal mobility. We evaluate the ability of a mobile ad hoc wireless network to distribute flows across robust routes by introducing the robust throughput measure as a performance metric. The utility gained by the delivery of flow messages is based on the level of interruption experienced by the underlying transaction. We describe the mathematical calculation of a network's robust throughput measure, as well as its robust throughput capacity. We introduce the Robust Flow Admission and Routing algorithm (RFAR) to provide for the timely and robust transport of flow transactions across mobile ad hoc wireless network systems. To further capture wide capacity resources and support the transport of flows at desired quality of service features, the networks often take advantage of the availability of a multitude of different communications segment types. Such segments may include wireline, terrestrial wireless and satellite or airborne based space communications means. They may operate at distinct frequency bands or may (completely or partially) share spectral resources. Flows belonging to a specified class may be directed across distinct routes established along a multitude of segments. We present an optimal algorithm to this problem that yields max-min fair distributions of flow rates, per each class, across the specified multitude of multi-segment routes. We also present heuristic algorithms that are computationally highly efficient and induce solutions that are close to the optimal max-min fair solution.