The most reliable data-path transmission

This paper examines the problem of transmitting a given amount of data along a single path from a designated source to a designated target in a directed network so that the reliability of the transmission is maximum. In this routing problem, the subpaths of an optimal path are not necessarily optimal. This complicates the process of selecting a path along which the data-transmission is completed in minimum time. A polynomial-time algorithm is presented which guarantees an optimal solution. On acyclic networks with interconnections that operate with the same reliability, another polynomial time algorithm is presented that computes the best route for each possible value of data. This is a useful pre-computation when different amounts of data need to be transmitted at different time periods.