Router Route Prioritization During Convergence
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Solution Overview
Problem
Traditional routers experience delays and disruptions during route convergence due to the installation of updates in an unordered manner, where important routes are delayed until unimportant routes are installed, leading to potential disruptions in traffic forwarding.
Innovation Solution
Implementing a system that prioritizes the installation of updates based on traffic levels, allowing routers to send and install high-traffic route updates before low-traffic route updates during the convergence process, ensuring that important routes can carry traffic sooner than unimportant routes.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Reliability
If route updates are sent in traditional unordered manner during convergence, then all routes are updated, but important routes are delayed until unimportant routes are installed causing forwarding disruptions
Solution Approach 1:
The patent applies preliminary action by calculating and determining the priority of each route update before the convergence process begins. Routes are pre-ranked based on traffic volume metrics, ensuring that high-traffic routes are identified and prioritized in advance. This allows the router to immediately install critical route updates first when convergence starts, rather than waiting through an unordered queue, thus maintaining forwarding capability for important routes while minimizing overall convergence time.
2Productivity
If route updates are installed in traditional FIFO order, then updates are processed systematically, but high-traffic routes may be delayed behind low-traffic routes reducing forwarding efficiency
Solution Approach 1:
The patent applies local quality by treating different route updates differently based on their individual characteristics, specifically their traffic volume. Instead of applying a uniform first-in-first-out processing rule to all routes, the system assigns different priority levels to different routes according to their local quality metrics. High-traffic routes receive premium processing priority and are installed first, while low-traffic routes are processed subsequently. This differentiated approach ensures that forwarding efficiency is maintained for critical routes without delaying the eventual installation of all necessary updates.
Data Source
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AI summary
The disclosed computer-implemented method for improving forwarding capabilities during route convergence may include (1) identifying, at an upstream network device, a set of updated routes that define network paths that have each experienced at least one topology change since the upstream network device last converged with a downstream network device, (2) determining, at the upstream network device, levels of priority for the set of updated routes based at least in part on amounts of traffic that traverse the network paths defined by the set of updated routes, (3) arranging, at the upstream network device, the set of updated routes in a prioritized order in accordance with the levels of priority, and then (4) converging the upstream network device with the downstream network device by sending the set of updated routes in the prioritized order to the downstream network device. Various other methods, systems, and apparatuses are also disclosed.