On Packet Switches With Infinite Storage

Abstract

Most prior work on congestion in datagram systems focuses on buffer management. We find it illuminating to consider the case of a packet switch with infinite storage. Such a packet switch can never run out of buffers. It can, however, still become congested. The meaning of congestion in an infinite-storage system is explored. We demonstrate the unexpected result that a datagram network with infinite storage, first-in, first-out queueing, at least two packet switches, and a finite packet lifetime will, under overload, drop all packets. By attacking the problem of congestion for the infinite-storage case, we discover new solutions applicable to switches with finite storage.

Document type: Report

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The different versions of the original document can be found in:

• http://dx.doi.org/10.17487/rfc0970

• http://www.potaroo.net/ietf/rfc/PDF/rfc970.pdf

• https://www.rfc-editor.org/rfc/pdfrfc/rfc970.txt.pdf

• http://xplorestaging.ieee.org/ielx5/26/24018/01096782.pdf?arnumber=1096782,http://dx.doi.org/10.1109/tcom.1987.1096782

• https://tools.ietf.org/html/rfc970,https://www.rfc-editor.org/info/rfc970,https://www.rfc-editor.org/rfc/rfc970.txt,https://ieeexplore.ieee.org/document/1096782,https://rfcs.web.fc2.com/rfc970.html,https://doi.org/10.1109/TCOM.1987.1096782,http://art.tools.ietf.org/html/rfc970,https://academic.microsoft.com/#/detail/2139150553

DOIS: 10.17487/rfc0970 10.1109/tcom.1987.1096782