IEEE Transactions on Automatic Control, Vol.45, No.9, 1687-1691, 2000
Braess-like paradoxes in distributed computer systems
We consider optimal distributed decisions in distributed computer systems. We identify a Braess-like paradox in which adding capacity to the system may degrade the performance of all users. Unlike the original Braess paradox, we show that this behavior occurs only in the case of finitely many users and not in the case of infinite number of users.
Keywords:Braess paradox;load balancing;Nash equilibrium;performance optimization;Wardrop equilibrium