Fair Scheduling through Packet Election

—In this paper, we consider the problem of designing scheduling algorithm for input queued switch that is both fair as well as throughput optimal. The significant body of literature developed over the past two decades for scheduling algorithm is primarily concerned with throughput and delay, but not fairness. One of the reason for such a state of affair is the lack of definition of fair. The difficulty in defining fair stems from the fact that any reasonable notion of fair must combine the well-known notion of fair for a single-queue with the scheduling constraint of input queued switch in an appropriate manner. As a main result of this paper, we define notion of fair scheduling by identifying it as selection of a winner in the following ranked election: packets are voters; schedules are candidates and each packet ranks different schedules based on their priorities. Drawing upon seminal work of Goodman and Markowitz (1952) on ranked election, we obtain unique characterization of...

• Type: Conference
• Year: 2008
• Where: INFOCOM
• Authors: Srikanth Jagabathula, Vishal Doshi, Devavrat Shah
• Keywords: Communications, Fair, INFOCOM 2008, Input Queued Switch, Scheduling Algorithm