A Note Regarding Prioritization on Congestible Networks

Abstract

This paper examines the effect of allowing prioritization of traffic on a congestible network under three demand scenarios. First, it is shown that when prioritization does not affect usage, average congestion on the network increases. Second, this result is shown to hold when there is demand shifting toward the prioritized network service but no impact on total network traffic. Finally, it is proven that for prioritization to reduce average congestion on a network it must reduce the total traffic on the network.