Paper Review: < DKS89 >>
Analysis and Simulation of a Fair Queueing Algorithm

Reviewer: Oleg Elkhunovich

Problem

Methods of congestion control in datagram networks have two points of implementation - the source and the gateway. This paper analyses Fair Queueing in gateways.

Contribution

FCFS queueing has some major flows in terms of fairness, and this paper presents an intersting alternative that might be leading to a better scheme.

Main Ideas

  • FCFS is inherently not fair, alternative algorithm can help with congestion control
  • Fair queueing is based on the round-robin scheduling
  • Fair queueing prevents ill-behaved sources from aquiring extra bandwidth

    Critique

    Significance: 4
    This paper presents a good alternative to FCFS scheme with some promising results.
    Methodology:
    Methodology is very good as authors describe their motivations based on previous research, add constraints, and present their algorithm They do a good job discussing their algorithm analytically and then present interesting simulation results.
    Limitation:
    Simulation has been done on only limited number of scenerios. Some of the results are ignored and dismissed and too complicated. It is not clear if scheme proposed is economically feasible.

    Lessons:
    When solving a problem, it is good to keep in mind different aspects that come together. Authors go beyond end-to-end congestion control to solve congestion problem.