A fair scheduling discipline for Ethernet passive optical networks

We propose a novel policy for scheduling upstream flows in Ethernet passive optical networks. This policy, called proportional sharing with load reservation (PSLR), provides bandwidth guarantees on a per-flow basis and redistributes the unused bandwidth among active flows in proportion to their priority level. We establish convergence conditions for the PSLR policy and show that it provides a fair service distribution among the flows. Moreover, we establish bounds for the backlog and delay on a per-flow basis, thus enabling a network to provide its users with absolute performance guarantees.