Paper Review: Analysis and Simulation of a Fair Queuing Algorithm

Reviewer: Mark Meras (mm446)

Main Contribution

This paper discusses a fair queuing algorithm designed to be used on network gateways. Most of the gateways uses First-Come-First-Serve queuing to determine bandwidth, promptness, and buffer space. The paper introduces a fair algorithm based on a round-robin scheme that tries to satisfy the most users, and presents simulation data

Key Points

Congestion control can happen at the source and at gateways. In gateways, congestion control is implemented through routing and queuing. While queueing algorithms do not decrease the total number of packets, they have cumulative effects when many flows are present. Thus, studying queuing algorithms is important and can lead to significant improvements.
Queueing algorithms control three variables: bandwidth (which packets get transmitted), promptness (how long it takes for these packets to be transmitted), and buffer space (which packets get discarded by the gateway). First-Come-First-Serve (FCFS) algorithms mix the three criteria together in assigning priority based on arrival time. A fair algorithm proposed in this paper uses a round-robin technique to achieve maxi-min fairness.

Critique of Contribution

This paper seems to be an early paper applying fairness techniques to queuing. It expands beyond static round-robin, and shows good simulation results. There is some vagueness in discussing other, non-FCFS, queueing schemes.

Open Question

What is we use a different definition of fairness? The authors claim that the algorithm is "fair" regardless of the definition, but does that claim still hold if the definition of fairness is based on an external property, such as payment?