Flow thinning (FT) is a traffic protection mechanism for communication networks with variable link capacities, for example wireless networks. With FT, end-to-end traffic demands use dedicated logical tunnels, for example MPLS tunnels, whose nominal capacity is subject to thinning in order to follow fluctuations in link capacities availability. Moreover, instantaneous traffic of each demand is throttled at its originating node accordingly to the current total capacity available on the demands dedicated tunnels so that the network is always capable of carrying the admitted traffic. In this paper we deal with efficient, implementable versions of FT, referred to as AFT (affine FT) and QFT (quadratic FT). By deriving appropriate link availability state and path generation algorithms, we show how real-life network dimen-sioning problems for AFT/QFT can be efficiently treated using a proper characterization of the network link availability states. Results of a numerical study illustrate tractability of the cost minimization problems, and assess efficiency of AFT/QFT as compared with other protection mechanisms.

中文翻译：

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仿射/二次流细化的鲁棒优化模型：可变链路容量网络的流量保护机制

流量细化 (FT) 是一种用于具有可变链路容量的通信网络（例如无线网络）的流量保护机制。对于 FT，端到端流量需求使用专用的逻辑隧道，例如 MPLS 隧道，其标称容量会变薄，以跟随链路容量可用性的波动。此外，根据需求专用隧道上当前可用的总容量，每个需求的瞬时流量在其始发节点处被节流，以便网络始终能够承载被接纳的流量。在本文中，我们处理高效、可实现的 FT 版本，称为 AFT（仿射 FT）和 QFT（二次 FT）。通过推导适当的链路可用性状态和路径生成算法，我们展示了如何使用适当的网络链路可用性状态表征来有效地处理 AFT/QFT 的现实网络尺寸问题。数值研究的结果说明了成本最小化问题的易处理性，并评估了 AFT/QFT 与其他保护机制相比的效率。