Multipath Group Routing for Congestion Avoidance
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Solution Overview
Problem
Network devices experience congestion when multiple network packets are routed through the same egress interface, leading to dropped packets and inefficient resource utilization, as existing technologies fail to effectively manage and reroute congested flows.
Innovation Solution
The implementation of techniques to identify congested egress interfaces and reroute network packet flows across multiple egress ports, using congestion control blocks and virtual output queues to distribute traffic and alleviate congestion by modifying hash reference ranges in the routing table.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Productivity
If network packets are routed through multiple egress interfaces using multipath groups, then resource utilization is improved, but congestion control becomes more complex
Solution Approach 1:
The system automatically detects congestion on egress interfaces and dynamically reroutes flows without manual intervention. The network device monitors queue depths and packet drop rates, then autonomously modifies routing table hash reference ranges to redistribute traffic, enabling self-service congestion management that improves resource utilization while maintaining operational simplicity
Solution Approach 2:
The routing configuration is made dynamic through continuous monitoring of interface congestion metrics and real-time adjustment of hash reference ranges. Instead of static multipath group assignments, the system adapts routing decisions based on current network conditions, allowing flexible redistribution of flows across egress interfaces to optimize resource utilization under varying load conditions
2Device complexity
If traffic is concentrated on a single egress interface for simplified routing, then routing complexity is reduced, but network performance deteriorates due to congestion
Solution Approach 1:
The patent segments the traffic flow by dividing the hash reference range into multiple sub-ranges, each mapping to different egress interfaces within a multipath group. This segmentation distributes packets from the same flow across multiple interfaces based on hash values, reducing concentration on single interfaces while maintaining routing simplicity through unified multipath group management
Solution Approach 2:
The patent introduces an additional dimension to routing by modifying hash reference ranges in the routing table to create overlapping or distributed hash mappings across multiple egress interfaces. This dimensional expansion allows traffic to be distributed across multiple paths while maintaining the simplicity of single-route configuration from the perspective of upper-layer protocols
Data Source
AI summary
Techniques are disclosed regarding interfaces, each configured to output network packets. The techniques can include a memory storing a first multipath group associated with the interfaces and a routing table, containing a first route to the first multipath group. The techniques can also include congestion detection logic configured to determine that an interface of the first multipath group is congested. The techniques can additionally include congestion avoidance logic configured to, upon determining that the interface of the first multipath group is congested, generate a second route in the routing table to a second multipath group associated with the interfaces of the first multipath group, wherein the second route diverts a flow of network packets from the first multipath group to the second multipath group.