We examine the problem of transmitting in minimum time a given amount of data between a source and a destination in a network with finite channel capacities and non–zero propagation delays. In the absence of delays, the problem has been shown to be solvable in polynomial time. In this paper, we show that the general problem is NP–hard. In addition, we examine transmissions along a single path, called the quickest path, and present algorithms for general and sparse networks that outperform previous approaches. The first dynamic algorithm for the quickest path problem is also given.
Dimitrios Kagaris, Spyros Tragoudas, Grammati E. P