Solution

ID: past-exam-of-the-mathematics-course-of-the-university-of-cambridge/2008/iii/paper-35/5/solution

For a network with link-route incidence matrix , a per-flow rate vector is feasible when and for every resource. A proportionally fair allocation has strictly positive rates on active routes and satisfies
for every feasible competing allocation . Equivalently it maximizes the weighted logarithmic utility subject to the capacity constraints. The equivalence follows from the first-order condition for this concave objective; strict concavity gives uniqueness on active routes. Rates on absent routes have no operational effect and may be set to zero.
Use labels for the routes , and put , , , , . The two-resource linear flow network has constraints
When and , write for aggregate through service. Every active local route uses the remainder of its resource, since increasing its rate increases utility. Up to additive constants, the objective becomes . Its derivative is , so its unique maximum is . This argument remains valid if only one local route is active: the unused local resource adds only the constraint . The resulting proportionally fair allocation on a two-resource linear network is
If , each active local route receives its resource equally, or , as the same formulas prescribe. If , only the through route is active and . At all rates may be set to zero. In particular no displayed expression is applied to an absent route with a zero denominator.
For independent Poisson processes of flow arrivals and independent exponential document sizes of parameters , the memoryless property makes a continuous-time Markov chain. Each active flow completes with instantaneous rate , so the flow-level network model has transitions
Thus for the aggregate service rates are
They vanish at the empty state. The total transition rate is bounded by , so the process is nonexplosive.
Put and define the balance function of a flow-level network
The elementary binomial coefficient ratios are
Hence whenever that departure is possible. Weights satisfy detailed balance for a continuous-time Markov chain, since
When summable they therefore give the stationary law of a two-resource linear flow network,
It remains to determine exactly when these weights normalize. First, summing only the terms requires . For such , the negative binomial series, or the supplied identity with parameter , gives
All weights are nonnegative, so the Tonelli theorem permits this order of summation. The normalizing sum is then
The two geometric series converge precisely under the stability conditions for a two-resource linear flow network, and evaluating them yields
These are exactly the strict offered-load constraints on the two unit-capacity resources; equality already makes a geometric sum diverge. For positive arrival rates the chain is irreducible, so the normalized law is its unique stationary probability and the chain is positive recurrent. Nonnegative arrival rates are also allowed with in the weights: a zero-arrival route is absent in the closed stationary class, and the same normalization conditions and formula remain valid there.

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