On Optimal Routing Through Communication Nets

This paper describes a procedure for a suboptimal routing of simultaneous multiterminal multicommodity flows in circuit switched communication networks. The procedure is based on a concept of topological importance of a branch in a capacitated net with a given structure and relative to a given pattern of communication requirements. Once these importance weights have been attached to the branches of the net, the problem reduces to finding in a weighted network the shortest path between two nodes. The chosen objective here is to optimize the grade of service (GS) by satisfying (on a long-range traffic policy basis) the changing "call" demands presented to the network, as fully as possible.