SEATER: an object-oriented simulation environment using learning automata for telephone traffic routing

Presents SEATER-an object-oriented environment in which any general telephone traffic routing problem can be set up, tested, and simulated using a variety of routing methods. The routing methods available are the fixed rule, random routing, and routing utilizing a complete assortment of different learning automata. The paper first describes the general telephone traffic routing problem, and various existing fixed rule routing schemes supported by the system are explained. This is followed by a brief motivation and description of learning automata routing techniques, and a survey of those schemes which are supported by the prototype system implemented. The paper then highlights the considerations that were taken in the design and implementation of the object-oriented prototype, SEATER. These automata schemes supported by SEATER are compared to the existing fixed rule algorithms in terms of minimizing the blocking probability of the network. The simulations show that the former solutions are far superior to any fixed rule solutions. The advantage of the former lies in their adaptability to changes in telephone traffic. The system is written in SMALLTALK V and runs on a MAC II