Decentralized Control of Distributed Cloud Networks with Generalized Network Flows

TL;DR

This paper introduces a decentralized control framework for distributed cloud networks handling generalized multicast traffic, optimizing packet processing, forwarding, and replication to improve network efficiency and stability.

Contribution

It develops a unified control framework for mixed-cast traffic, characterizes the multicast network stability region, and proposes a novel decentralized algorithm for throughput and cost optimization.

Findings

Enhanced multicast network stability region characterization.

First fully decentralized throughput- and cost-optimal multicast control algorithm.

Numerical results show significant performance improvements over existing policies.

Abstract

Emerging distributed cloud architectures, e.g., fog and mobile edge computing, are playing an increasingly important role in the efficient delivery of real-time stream-processing applications (also referred to as augmented information services), such as industrial automation and metaverse experiences (e.g., extended reality, immersive gaming). While such applications require processed streams to be shared and simultaneously consumed by multiple users/devices, existing technologies lack efficient mechanisms to deal with their inherent multicast nature, leading to unnecessary traffic redundancy and network congestion. In this paper, we establish a unified framework for distributed cloud network control with generalized (mixed-cast) traffic flows that allows optimizing the distributed execution of the required packet processing, forwarding, and replication operations. We first characterize the enlarged multicast network stability region under the new control framework (with respect to its unicast counterpart). We then design a novel queuing system that allows scheduling data packets according to their current destination sets, and leverage Lyapunov drift-plus-penalty control theory to develop the first fully decentralized, throughput- and cost-optimal algorithm for multicast flow control. Numerical experiments validate analytical results and demonstrate the performance gain of the proposed design over existing network control policies.