A network-decentralised strategy for shortest-path-flow routing

To control the flow in a dynamical network where the nodes are associated with buffer variables and the arcs with controlled flows, we consider a network-decentralised strategy such that each arc controller makes its decision exclusively based on local information about the levels of the buffers that it connects. We seek a flow control law that asymptotically minimises a cost specified in terms of a weighted L₁-norm. This approach has the advantage of providing a solution that is generally sparse, because it uses a limited number of controlled flows. In particular, in the presence of a resource demand applied on a single node, the asymptotic flow is concentrated along the shortest path.