Efficient resource allocation in congested networks – RACON

Congestion is a ubiquitous phenomenon arising in many real life situations like transportation or communication networks. Congestion appears when the offered load to the system approaches or exceeds its capacity, having a very bad impact from performance and economic point of view. It is therefore in this setting of crucial importance to efficiently allocate the resources in order to minimize the performance degradation. In most cases of practical interest, the complexity of the models under consideration makes exact analysis out of reach. Our plan of attack is to investigate approximate techniques that will lead to obtain insights into the optimal resource allocation. The accuracy of the obtained resource allocation schemes will then be established by obtaining performance bounds or by proving its optimality for some particular instance of the problem. The final goal is to obtain a unifying theory that can satisfactorily address the allocation problems in modern systems.