A Congestion Control Method to Support Coordinated Bandwidth Allocation

In networked data fusion or control applications, a data sink node may require participating source nodes to transmit data according to certain bit-rate allocations, or bit-rate ratios that are determined by the fusion or control task. In a shared network, the coordinated flows of a fusion or control application will need to coexist with the flows of other applications. In this paper, we examine the problem of congestion control of coordinated flows of a fusion or control application along with flows of ordinary data transfer applications. Through a simple modification of a utility function to accommodate the rate coordination, we employ network utility maximization methods to derive window flow control algorithms for both ordinary and coordinated flows. While the congestion control method for the ordinary flows remains unchanged, the coordinated flows require scalar feedback from a sink node to maintain rate coordination. We examine the equilibria, and the impact of the rate coordination algorithm on the ordinary flows, and provide simulation results that demonstrate the efficacy of the new congestion control method.