Resource marking and fair rate allocation

In resource marking theory, users adapt their rates according to their utility functions and congestion signals from the network. Using a special type of utility function, this leads to a proportionally fair rate allocation among the users. We examine the ability of two proposed resource marking implementations, random exponential marking (see Athuraliya, S. et al., Teletraffic Science and Engineering, vol. 4, p.817-28, 2001) and the virtual queue mechanism (see Gibbens, R.J. and Kelly, F.P., Automatica, vol.35, p.1969-85, 1999), to yield a proportionally fair rate allocation. We also propose a third and less complex algorithm, single bit resource marking, that combines the advantages of both.