Comparison of Routing Procedures for Circuit-Switched Traffic in Nonhierarchical Networks

In this paper, we compare the use of different types of routing procedures for circuit-switched traffic in nonhierarchical networks. The main performance criterion used is the end-to-end blocking probability. The results show that if the network traffic is light, alternate routing performs better than nonalternate routing, but if the network traffic is heavy, the situation is reversed. To improve the performance of networks using alternate routing, different types of strategies varying from fixed control to dynamic control are introduced. A comparison based on numerical examples shows the improvement in performance attained by using a dynamic control strategy compared to fixed control. Good control techniques result in nonalternate routing under heavy traffic loads; nonalternate routing is the most viable alternative in nonhierarchical networks under heavy traffic conditions.