We consider the solution of the single commodity strictly convex network flow problem in a distributed asynchronous computation environment. The dual of this problem is unconstrained, differentiable, and well suited for solution via Gauss–Seidel relaxation. We show that the structure of the dual allows the successful application of a distributed asynchronous method whereby relaxation iterations are carried out in parallel by several processors in arbitrary order and with arbitrarily large interprocessor communication delays.

This paper deals with a new class of parallel asynchronous iterative algorithms for the solution of nonlinear systems of equations. The main feature of the new class of methods presented here is the possibility of flexible communication between processors. In particular partial updates can be exchanged. Approximation of the associated fixed point mapping is also considered. A detailed convergence study is presented. A connection with the Schwarz alternating method is made for the solution of nonlinear boundary value problems. Computational results on a shared memory multiprocessor IBM 3090 are briefly presented.