Fuzzy distance approach to routing algorithms for optimal web path estimation

This paper presents a fuzzy extension of several classical routing algorithms and uses them for finding the optimal path set of links to a target web site in a web-link network. The retrieval rate,, which is the time taken to retrieve the target pages, is considered as the decisive factor. This factor is unpredictable while surfing due to a variety of reasons which include availability of channel, server capability and network bandwidth, etc., and is therefore represented linguistically. The expected retrieval rate ER is extremely high and is also expressed as a fuzzy set. Users' opinions about each link with regard to X are collected and the fuzzy opinion matrix is formulated. From the overall fuzzy opinion on each link in a path, a fuzzy Hurwicz opinion set is derived using an optimism-pessimism index, a. For each link, the fuzzy distance between the fuzzy Hurwicz opinion set and the expected retrieval rate fuzzy set is estimated. The classical Floyd-Warshall, Dijkstra and Bellman-Ford routing algorithms are extended using fuzzy distance measures in exploring optimal web surfing. An optimal surfing path is estimated in a web link network using the above fuzzy distance based routing algorithms.