A robust broadband headend switching algorithm

Local area networks (LANs) with a branching rooted-tree topology are considered. In these systems, the metropolitan area gateway (MAG) is responsible for coordinating the flow of traffic into and out of the local subnetworks. A traffic scheduling technique is proposed for this topology. The algorithm is motivated by a finite-horizon maximization of conditional channel cycle utilization, resulting in a zero/infinite scheduling window scheme. Improved mean delay performance is achieved over a much wider range of traffic conditions than for other known algorithms. In order to obtain this robust behaviour, the local media access algorithms are modified to interact with the dynamic scheduling scheme in the MAG