Analysis of some channel selection methods for networks with multiple channels

Abstract

Abstract Communications networks with multiple parallel channels become more feasible more than before because of the decreasing cost of equipments. Advantages of using multiple parallel channels to connect terminals include better reliability and fault‐tolerance capability, higher throughput and lower delay, easier implementing priority schemes, and more adaptable to provide various kinds of network services. We analyze in this paper the performances of four different channel selection methods in a network with multiple parallel channels. The basic idea is that the performance can be significantly improved by transmitting multiple copies of the same packet simultaneously. We also evaluate the performance deterioration caused by channel failures. The deterioration is observed to be significant if users do not know which channels are out of order. However, an efficient fault‐diagnosis technique is very helpful to alleviate the deterioration. Some easily implementable priority schemes, which are called prio...