Control and optimization methods in communication network problems

The authors focus on two areas of communication network design in which methods of control and optimization theory have proven useful. These are the area of multiple access communication (for networks with shared links such as radio networks and local area networks) and the area of network routing (for networks with point-to-point interconnections). They review a few selected problems in each area to show the role of the control concepts involved and then proceed to identify other areas of communication network design in which the same control theoretic and optimization methodology may be applicable and useful. They attempt to bring to the attention of the control systems community the numerous instances of problems arising in the pure communication network design process that can benefit from the attention and the capabilities of this community