Past exam of the mathematics course of the University of Cambridge 2013 iii Paper 37 1 iii Solution Created 2026-10-03 Updated 2026-10-07
With alternative routing, a rejected direct call can try a longer route. The attempt rates now depend on blocking itself, giving an additional feedback absent from fixed routing.
For an explicit example, take three nodes with a unit-resource link between each pair, all of capacity . For every unordered pair, direct calls arrive at rate and have mean holding time one. A call first tries its direct link; if that link is full, it tries the unique two-link route through the third node, and otherwise is lost. Under a symmetric Erlang fixed point approximation, all links have blocking . A given link sees its own direct load . It can also carry overflow from either of the other two pairs; each contributes reduced load , since the direct link must block and the other link of the alternative route must accept. HenceThis is an instance of multiple Erlang fixed points under alternative routing. Put . Evaluation using the positive Erlang B formula recurrence , givesThe sign statements can be certified with rational arithmetic at these rational arguments. The intermediate value theorem gives a distinct root in each of , and ; numerical roots are approximately , and .
Thus the alternative-routing fixed point is not unique. The mechanism is extra link occupancy from overflow: moderate blocking stimulates two-link calls and can reinforce congestion. This multiplicity belongs to the approximation. The exact finite stochastic model has a unique stationary law on its reachable communicating class; the extra approximate solutions do not create three exact invariant distributions.