Multi-Commodity Network Flows over Multipaths with Bounded Buffers

In this paper we address the issue of designing multi-path routing algorithms. Multi-path routing has the potential of improving the throughput but requires buffers at the destination. Our model assumes a network with capacitated edges and a delay function associated with the network links (edges). We consider the problem of establishing a specified throughput from multiple source to destination pairs in the network, given bounds on the buffer sizes available at the network intermediate nodes and a bound on the maximum delay that the paths are allowed to have. We formulate the problem using a linear programming model. We also present practical heuristics and present the experimental results on an existing network topology. The results are promising and demonstrate the effectiveness of simultaneous multipaths in the multi-commodity scenario.