Target-Pursuing Policies for Multiclass Queueing Networks

We propose a new parametric class of scheduling and routing policies for open and closed multiclass queuing networks. In open networks, they steer the state of the system towards a pre-determined and xed target, while, in closed networks they steer instantaneous throughputs towards a xed target. In both cases, the proposed policies measure distance from the target using a weighted norm. In open networks, we work with a uid model and establish that for several choices of the norm the corresponding policies are stable. In closed networks, we establish that with proper target selection the corresponding policy is ecient, that is, attains bottleneck throughput in the in nite population limit. In both open and closed networks, the proposed policies are amenable to distributed implementation using local state information. We exploit our earlier work in [BPT94] to select appropriate parameter values and outline how optimal parameter values can be computed. We report numerical results indicating that we obtain near-optimal policies (when the optimal can be computed) and signi cantly outperform heuristic alternatives