Maximizing Queueing Network Utility Subject to Stability: Greedy Primal-Dual Algorithm

We study a model of controlled queueing network, which operates and makes control decisions in discrete time. An underlying random network mode determines the set of available controls in each time slot. Each control decision \produces" a certain vector of \commodities"; it also has associated \traditional" queueing control e ect, i.e., it determines traÆc (customer) arrival rates, service rates at the nodes, and random routing of processed customers among the nodes. The problem is to nd a dynamic control strategy which maximizes a concave utility function H(X), where X is the average value of commodity vector, subject to the constraint that network queues remain stable. We introduce a dynamic control algorithm, which we call Greedy Primal-Dual (GPD) algorithm, and prove its asymptotic optimality. We show that our network model and GPD algorithm accommodate a wide range of applications. As one example, we consider the problem of congestion control of networks where both traÆc sources and network processing nodes may be randomly time-varying and interdependent. We also discuss a variety of resource allocation problems in wireless networks, which in particular involve average power consumption constraints and/or optimization, as well as traÆc rate constraints.