Cautious Weight Tuning for Link State Routing Protocols

Link state routing protocols are widely used for intradomain routing in the Internet. These protocols are simple to administer and automatically update paths between sources and destinations when the topology changes. However, finding link weights that optimize network performance for a given traffic scenario is computationally hard. The situation is even more complex when the traffic is uncertain or time-varying. We present an efficient heuristic for finding link settings that give uniformly good performance also under large changes in the traffic. The heuristic combines efficient search techniques with a novel objective function. The objective function combines network performance with a cost of deviating from desirable features of robust link weight settings. Furthermore, we discuss why link weight optimization is insensitive to errors in estimated traffic data from link load measurements. We assess performance of our method using traffic data from an operational IP backbone

Cautious Weight Tuning for Link State Routing Protocols

Abstract Link state routing protocols are widely used for intradomain routing in the Internet. These protocols are simple to administer and automatically update paths between sources and destinations when the topology changes. However, finding link weights that optimize network performance for a given traffic scenario is computationally hard. The situation is even more complex when the traffic is uncertain or time-varying. We present an efficient heuristic for finding link settings that give uniformly good performance also under large changes in the traffic. The heuristic combines efficient search techniques with a novel objective function. The objective function combines network performance with a cost of deviating from desirable features of robust link weight settings. Furthermore, we discuss why link weight optimization is insensitive to errors in estimated traffic data from link load measurements. We assess performance of our method using traffic data from an operational IP backbone

Aspects of proactive traffic engineering in IP networks

To deliver a reliable communication service over the Internet it is essential for the network operator to manage the traffic situation in the network. The traffic situation is controlled by the routing function which determines what path traffic follows from source to destination. Current practices for setting routing parameters in IP networks are designed to be simple to manage. This can lead to congestion in parts of the network while other parts of the network are far from fully utilized. In this thesis we explore issues related to optimization of the routing function to balance load in the network and efficiently deliver a reliable communication service to the users. The optimization takes into account not only the traffic situation under normal operational conditions, but also traffic situations that appear under a wide variety of circumstances deviating from the nominal case. In order to balance load in the network knowledge of the traffic situations is needed. Consequently, in this thesis we investigate methods for efficient derivation of the traffic situation. The derivation is based on estimation of traffic demands from link load measurements. The advantage of using link load measurements is that they are easily obtained and consist of a limited amount of data that need to be processed. We evaluate and demonstrate how estimation based on link counts gives the operator a fast and accurate description of the traffic demands. For the evaluation we have access to a unique data set of complete traffic demands from an operational IP backbone. However, to honor service level agreements at all times the variability of the traffic needs to be accounted for in the load balancing. In addition, optimization techniques are often sensitive to errors and variations in input data. Hence, when an optimized routing setting is subjected to real traffic demands in the network, performance often deviate from what can be anticipated from the optimization. Thus, we identify and model different traffic uncertainties and describe how the routing setting can be optimized, not only for a nominal case, but for a wide range of different traffic situations that might appear in the network. Our results can be applied in MPLS enabled networks as well as in networks using link state routing protocols such as the widely used OSPF and IS-IS protocols. Only minor changes may be needed in current networks to implement our algorithms. The contributions of this thesis is that we: demonstrate that it is possible to estimate the traffic matrix with acceptable precision, and we develop methods and models for common traffic uncertainties to account for these uncertainties in the optimization of the routing configuration. In addition, we identify important properties in the structure of the traffic to successfully balance uncertain and varying traffic demands

Enhanced border gateway protocol in NS- 2 by adding the hot potato functionality based on real network

The rapid growth of the Internet has made the issue of ensuring reliability and redundancy a big challenge. Studies of these issues using Traffic Engineering and simulation have been extensively done. There has been substantial interest from researchers in the development and contribution of modules in NS-2. Most studies have not taken into account real traffic parameters in their simulation models. Also, there is no comprehensive model consisting of Border Gateway Protocol (BGP) and Hot Potato (HP) routing in the NS-2 network simulator based on real networks. In this paper, Integrated Model is introduced consisting of HP algorithm and BGP integrated into the NS-2 network simulator. The integrated model is then used to simulate the infrastructure of a real production network using actual captured traffic data parameters. The network is modeled with a baseline topology where 5 main nodes were connected together, with redundant links for some nodes. The simulations were repeated for link failures. HP helps in improving the node which experiences a link failure to select shorter distance route to egress router. In the case of a link failure, HP switching time between the links is 0.05 seconds. The integrated model performance was evaluated by comparing trace file before and after link failure or by adding nodes (up to 32). The parameters used for comparison are the packets loss, delay and throughput. The integrated model error percentage obtained for packets loss is 0.025%, delay 0.013% and throughput 0.003%

Traffic matrix estimation with enhanced origin destination generator algorithm using simulation of real network

The rapid growth of the Internet has made the issue of ensuring reliability and redundancy a big challenge. Studies of these issues using Traffic Engineering and simulation have been extensively done. In Traffic Matrix Estimation (TME), the Origin–Destination Generator algorithm (ODGen) is limited to the number of hops, where the Expectation Maximization (EM) accuracy is 92%. Most studies have not taken into account real traffic parameters and integration of TME models with routing protocols in their simulation models. Also, there is no a comprehensive model consisting of TME, Border Gateway Protocol (BGP) and Hot Potato (HP) routing in the NS-2 network simulator based on real networks. In this research, Integrated Simulated Model (ISM) is introduced consisting of ODGen-HP algorithm and BGP integrated into the NS-2 network simulator. ISM is then used to simulate the infrastructure of a real production network using actual captured traffic data parameters. Validation is then done against the changes in network topology based on packet loss, delay and throughput. Results gave the average error for packet sent by simulated and production networks of 0% and the average error for packet received by simulation and production networks of 3.61%. The network is modelled with a baseline topology where 5 main nodes were connected together, with redundant links for some nodes. The simulations were repeated for link failures, node addition, and node removal. TME used in ISM is based on ODGen, that is optimized with unlimited number of hops, the accuracy of EM increases to 97% and Central Processing Unit complexity is reduced. HP helps in improving the node which experiences a link failure to select shorter distance route to egress router. In the case of a link failure, HP switching time between the links is 0.05 seconds. ISM performance was evaluated by comparing trace file before and after link failure or by adding nodes (up to 32) or removing nodes. The parameters used for comparison are the packets loss, delay and throughput. The ISM error percentage obtained for packets loss is 0.025%, delay 0.013% and throughput 0.003%

Joint Optimization of Intra- and Inter-Autonomous System Traffic Engineering

Traffic Engineering (TE) is used to optimize IP operational network performance. The existing literature generally considers intra- and inter-AS (Autonomous System) TE independently. However, the overall network performance may not be truly optimized when these aspects are considered separately. This is due to the interaction between intra- and inter-AS TE, where a solution of intra-AS TE may not be a good input to inter-AS TE and vice versa. To remedy this situation, we propose considering intra-AS aspects during inter-AS TE and vice versa. We propose a joint optimization of intra- and inter-AS TE to further improve the overall network performance by simultaneously finding the best egress points for the inter-AS traffic and the best routing scheme for the intra-AS traffic. Three strategies are presented to attack the problem, namely sequential, nested and integrated optimization. Our simulation study shows that, compared to sequential and nested optimization, integrated optimization can significantly improve the overall network performance by accommodating 30%-60% more traffic demands