Congestion control for carrier ethernet using network potentials

In this paper we introduce a congestion control method suitable for Carrier Ethernet / Metro Ethernet Networks. Ethernet is considered to replace ATM as provider access aggregation network technology due to its cost efficiency, but it still lacks many necessary features to provide Quality of Service (QoS) as required from carrier-grade networks. This congestion control method is based on network potentials, which is a new concept to make the network traffic load aware and to implicitly prevent overload situations. Network potentials are scalar measures for the ability of the network to carry traffic of QoS services.