Optimal Routing for Multiclass Networks

Overall optimal routing is considered along with individually optimal routing for networks with nodes interconnected in a generally configured manner and with multiple classes of users. The two problems are formulated, and we discuss the mutual equivalence between the problems, the existence and uniqueness of solutions, and the relation between the formulations with path and link flow patterns. We show that a link-traffic loop-free property holds within each class for both individually and overall optimal routing for a wide range of networks, and we show the condition that characterizes the category of networks for which the property holds.