Deadlock- and livelock-free packet switching networks

Abstract

A controller for a packet switching network is an algorithm to control the flow of packets through the network. A local controller is a controller executed independently by each node in the network, using only local information available to these nodes. A controller is deadlock- and livelock-free if it guarantees that every packet in the network reaches its destination within a finite amount of time. We present a local controller which is proved to be deadlock- and livelockfree.