AIMD Dynamics and Distributed Resource Allocation

This is the first comprehensive book on the AIMD algorithm, the most widely used method for allocating a limited resource among competing agents without centralized control. The authors offer a new approach that is based on positive switched linear systems. It is used to develop most of the main results found in the book, and fundamental results on stochastic switched nonnegative and consensus systems are derived to obtain these results.

The original and best known application of the algorithm is in the context of congestion control and resource allocation on the Internet, and readers will find details of several variants of the algorithm in order of increasing complexity, including deterministic, random, linear, and nonlinear versions. In each case, stability and convergence results are derived based on unifying principles. Basic and fundamental properties of the algorithm are described, examples are used to illustrate the richness of the resulting dynamical systems, and applications are provided to show how the algorithm can be used in the context of smart cities, intelligent transportation systems, and the smart grid.