[Paper Review] Cyclic Queuing and Forwarding for Large Scale Deterministic Networks: A Survey

Ahmed Nasrallah, Venkatraman Balasubramanian+3 more|arXiv (Cornell University)|May 21, 2019

Advanced Software Engineering Methodologies21 citations

TL;DR

This survey synthesizes research and standardization efforts on queueing and scheduling mechanisms for large-scale deterministic networks (LDNs), identifying key design strands and their interdependencies. It calls for a rigorous, comprehensive simulation study to evaluate the leading mechanisms, highlighting a critical gap in empirical validation despite extensive theoretical and standardization work.

ABSTRACT

This paper provides a comprehensive survey of queueing and scheduling mechanisms for supporting large scale deterministic networks (LDNs). The survey finds that extensive mechanism design research and standards development for LDNs has been conducted over the past few years. However, these mechanism design studies have not been followed up with a comprehensive rigorous evaluation. The main outcome of this survey is a clear organization of the various research and standardization efforts towards queueing and scheduling mechanisms for LDNs as well as the identification of the main strands of mechanism development and their interdependencies. Based on this survey, it appears urgent to conduct a comprehensive rigorous simulation study of the main strands of mechanisms.

Motivation & Objective

• To organize and synthesize the extensive research and standardization efforts on queueing and scheduling mechanisms for large-scale deterministic networks (LDNs).
• To identify the main strands of mechanism development and their interdependencies in LDN research.
• To highlight the lack of rigorous empirical evaluation despite significant theoretical and standardization progress.
• To advocate for a comprehensive, rigorous simulation study of the primary mechanism strands in LDNs.

Proposed method

• Systematic review of existing literature and standardization activities related to queueing and scheduling in LDNs.
• Categorization of mechanism design approaches based on their architectural and operational characteristics.
• Analysis of interdependencies among different mechanism strands to map the research landscape.
• Identification of key research gaps through comparative evaluation of existing studies.
• Formulation of recommendations for future empirical validation through simulation.

Experimental results

Research questions

• RQ1 What are the main design strands of queueing and scheduling mechanisms in large-scale deterministic networks?
• RQ2 How are these mechanism strands interdependent, and what are their shared and distinct characteristics?
• RQ3 Why has extensive mechanism design research not been followed by rigorous empirical evaluation?
• RQ4 What are the critical components that should be included in a comprehensive simulation study of LDN mechanisms?

Key findings

• Extensive research and standardization efforts have been made on queueing and scheduling mechanisms for LDNs, but these have not been accompanied by rigorous empirical validation.
• The survey successfully organizes the diverse research and standardization activities into coherent strands of mechanism development.
• Interdependencies among mechanism strands have been identified, revealing shared design principles and divergent technical approaches.
• A critical research gap exists in the absence of comprehensive simulation studies to evaluate the performance of leading LDN mechanisms.