Fairness in Computer Networks: A Survey

Abstract

In this paper some fairness issues in computer communication networks are discussed. In general be network protocols are designed to optimize some network-wide performance measure. However, that may not guarantee that the performance of the individual users will also be optimized. In fact, it can be shown that optimization of some objective functions can be done by making some users' throughput equal to zero. Very few network protocols are designed to distribute the network resources equally to all users. Research work on three different fairness methodologies is reviewed. Some suggestions for future research are given.

Indexing terms:

• Computer communication networks
• Network protocols
• Fairness
• Resource allocation