A Fluid Dynamic Model for Telecommunication Networks with Sources and Destinations

This paper proposes a macroscopic fluid dynamic model dealing with the flows of information on a telecommunication network with sources and destinations. The model consists of a conservation law for the packet density and a semilinear equation for traffic distribution functions, i.e., functions describing packet paths. We describe methods to solve Riemann problems at junctions assigning different traffic distribution functions and two “routing algorithms.” Moreover, we prove the existence of solutions to Cauchy problems for small perturbations of network equilibria.