Maximal flow data routing

摘要

In a network consisting of a plurality of nodes (1 to 9) interconnected by links (101 to 111), a communication from one terminal, 11, to a second terminal, 92, is transmitted using a maximal flow algorithm, in which the communication is divided among all the possible paths from terminal 11 to terminal 92. Accordingly, greater use is made of lightly loaded links and the demand on heavily loaded links is reduced as the traffic is more evenly distributed across the network, resulting in an overall improvement in network performance.