We consider a symmetric network composed of N links, each with capacity C.
Calls arrive according to a Poisson process, and each call concerns L disti
nct links chosen uniformly at random. If each of these links has free capac
ity, the call is held for an exponential time; otherwise it is lost. The se
miexplicit stationary distribution for this process is similar to a Gibbs m
easure: it involves a normalizing factor, the partition function, which is
very difficult to evaluate. We let N go to infinity and keep fixed the rate
of call attempts concerning any link. We use asymptotic combinatorics and
recent techniques involving the law of large numbers to obtain the asymptot
ic equivalent fur the logarithm of the partition function and then the larg
e deviation principle for the empirical measure of the occupancies of the l
inks. We give an explicit formula for the rate function and examine its pro
perties.