Assigning Bandwidths

Once the topology has been completely generated, both router-level models invoke the AssignBandwidth method of the RouterModel class. New router-level models can override this method or choose not to call it at all.

BRITE assigns bandwidths to links according to one of four possible distributions. The user specifies in the configuration file passed to BRITE, which distribution is going to be used ($BWdist$), along with a minimum ($BWmin$) and maximum ($BWmax$) values for possible bandwidths that can be assigned. BRITE assigns a bandwdith to each link that is either:

1. Constant: the value specified by $BWmin$ (equal for all links in the topology).
2. Uniform: a value uniformly distributed between $BWmin$ and $BWmax$.
3. Exponential: a value exponentially distributed with mean $BWmin$.
4. Heavy-tailed: a value heavy-tailed distributed (Pareto with shape 1.2) with minimum value $BWmin$ and maximum value equal to $BWmax$.

Note that the user's choice of $BWdist$, $BWmin$ and $BWmax$ drives BRITE's bandwidth assignment. BRITE treats bandwidth values as unitless. Users interpret the meaning of bandwidth units according to their needs. See Section 3.8 for more details on parameter choice and values.