Elastic Traffic Routing Protocol for Network Load Balancing
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Solution Overview
Problem
Conventional routing protocols for elastic traffic do not effectively manage bandwidth distribution, leading to congestion on shortest paths while underutilizing other available paths, resulting in inefficient network performance and potential service disruptions.
Innovation Solution
A routing protocol that identifies candidate paths based on the number of flows and measured performance, assigning new elastic traffic flows to paths with lower traffic counts initially and then to paths with higher throughput, ensuring fair load balancing and efficient path utilization, while also handling failures and blackouts by rerouting traffic.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Productivity
If conventional routing protocols use shortest routing paths for elastic traffic, then routing efficiency is improved, but network congestion occurs on those paths while other paths remain under-utilized
Solution Approach 1:
The routing protocol dynamically selects paths based on current network conditions rather than statically using shortest paths. The system monitors network state and adapts path selection in real-time, allowing traffic to be routed over different paths depending on congestion levels, thus maintaining both efficiency and reliability
Solution Approach 2:
The routing decision changes from being based solely on path length to incorporating multiple parameters including congestion levels, throughput measurements, and flow counts. This multi-parameter approach allows the system to balance load across multiple paths while maintaining routing efficiency
2Device complexity
If routing protocols route traffic without knowledge of path performance, then device complexity is reduced, but network utilization becomes inefficient
Solution Approach 1:
The routing protocol incorporates feedback mechanisms where path performance is measured and used to inform subsequent routing decisions. Throughput measurements and congestion data from previous transmissions feed into the routing selection process, enabling efficient network utilization without requiring overly complex protocols
Solution Approach 2:
The network routing system performs its own performance measurements and path selections without requiring external control or complex centralized management. Each router independently measures path characteristics and makes routing decisions based on these self-collected data, maintaining simplicity while achieving efficient utilization
Data Source
AI summary
To route a flow of elastic traffic, plural candidate paths are identified for the flow of elastic traffic. A particular path from among the plural candidate paths is selected to route the flow of elastic traffic according to criteria including numbers of flows on respective candidate paths and measured performances of the respective candidate paths.