What is it about?
Computer networks, such as the internet or datacenters, are made of inter-connected devices. To reach one another, these devices seek the best paths through this maze of links. However, just like you may choose to take the safest, the fastest or the flattest route of a road network to reach your office, it is important to compute best routes according to varying objectives. Furthermore, as unexpected events may arise, we must account for the variability of the network. We present an algebraic and probabilistic framework to explore this space of possible routes more realistically.
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Why is it important?
Systems of interconnected machines lead to emerging behaviours which might become difficult to keep track of with deterministic models and algorithms. Ignoring variability might depict a deformed picture of the dynamic nature of networks. Embracing this randomness and developing probabilistic methods, might well be the solution to overcome this complexity.
Perspectives
Using randomness to gain more certainty might sound counter-intuitive but since we live in an uncertain world, it might well be the best way to go! I hope this work will strike as a good example for that idea.
Jean Mégret
ETH Zürich
Read the Original
This page is a summary of: Probabilistic Routing Algebras for QoS Routing, September 2025, ACM (Association for Computing Machinery),
DOI: 10.1145/3744969.3748432.
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