A polynomial-time optimal synchronous bandwidth allocation scheme for the timed-token MAC protocol

Numerous methods have been proposed to integrate real-time and non-real-time services of the timed-token medium access control (MAC) protocol. One of the key issues in tailoring the timed-token MAC protocol for real-time applications is the synchronous bandwidth allocation (SEA) problem whose objective is to meet both the protocol and deadline constraints. Several non-optimal local SEA schemes and an optimal global scheme have been proposed previously. Local SEA schemes use only information available locally to each node, and are thus preferred to global schemes because of their lower network-management overhead. Unfortunately it has been formally proved in Han et al. (1995) that there does not exist any optimal local SEA scheme. Chen et al. [1992] proposed the only-known optimal global SEA scheme which is based on an iterative approach. However, their algorithm may not terminate theoretically. The present authors give an optimal global SEA scheme of polynomial-time worst-case complexity.