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Multipath Routing From a Traffic Engineering Perspective: How Beneficial is It?

Liu, X. ; Mohanraj, S. ; Pioro, Michal LU and Medhi, D. (2014) IEEE 22nd International Conference on Network Protocols (ICNP) p.143-154
Abstract
Multipath routing gives traffic demands an opportunity to use multiple paths through a network. In a single-demand situation, its benefits are easy to see. In a multi-commodity case, when potentially all node-pairs (demands) generate traffic, they compete for the same network resources. In this work, we consider multipath routing in communication networks in a multi-commodity setting from a traffic engineering perspective. Based on a result from linear programming, we show that at an optimal solution, the number of demands that can have multiple paths with nonzero flows is of the order of the number of network links for three commonly used traffic engineering objectives. We introduce a multipath measure (MPM) and show that under certain... (More)
Multipath routing gives traffic demands an opportunity to use multiple paths through a network. In a single-demand situation, its benefits are easy to see. In a multi-commodity case, when potentially all node-pairs (demands) generate traffic, they compete for the same network resources. In this work, we consider multipath routing in communication networks in a multi-commodity setting from a traffic engineering perspective. Based on a result from linear programming, we show that at an optimal solution, the number of demands that can have multiple paths with nonzero flows is of the order of the number of network links for three commonly used traffic engineering objectives. We introduce a multipath measure (MPM) and show that under certain traffic conditions and topological structures, the MPM is zero or close to zero, i.e., Multipath routing provides little or limited gain compared to single-path routing. For the all-pair traffic case, multipath routing is observed to be advantageous for small networks. When the number of nodes is about 25 or higher and all node pairs have traffic, this advantage drops as the number of nodes in a network increases. For the fat-tree data center topology, the benefit of multipath routing also drops as the number of pods increases. Our findings are somewhat against a common belief (expressed by the term "load sharing") that multipath routing is significantly better in effective distribution of traffic over the network resources. (Less)
Please use this url to cite or link to this publication:
author
; ; and
organization
publishing date
type
Chapter in Book/Report/Conference proceeding
publication status
published
subject
host publication
[Host publication title missing]
pages
143 - 154
publisher
IEEE - Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers Inc.
conference name
IEEE 22nd International Conference on Network Protocols (ICNP)
conference location
Raleigh, NC, United States
conference dates
2014-10-21 - 2014-10-24
external identifiers
  • scopus:84920041302
  • wos:000392944400013
ISBN
978-1-4799-6203-7
DOI
10.1109/ICNP.2014.34
language
English
LU publication?
yes
id
8ab5ab69-614f-441f-8431-0bc091926e00 (old id 5277388)
date added to LUP
2016-04-04 11:01:55
date last changed
2022-05-01 20:50:12
@inproceedings{8ab5ab69-614f-441f-8431-0bc091926e00,
  abstract     = {{Multipath routing gives traffic demands an opportunity to use multiple paths through a network. In a single-demand situation, its benefits are easy to see. In a multi-commodity case, when potentially all node-pairs (demands) generate traffic, they compete for the same network resources. In this work, we consider multipath routing in communication networks in a multi-commodity setting from a traffic engineering perspective. Based on a result from linear programming, we show that at an optimal solution, the number of demands that can have multiple paths with nonzero flows is of the order of the number of network links for three commonly used traffic engineering objectives. We introduce a multipath measure (MPM) and show that under certain traffic conditions and topological structures, the MPM is zero or close to zero, i.e., Multipath routing provides little or limited gain compared to single-path routing. For the all-pair traffic case, multipath routing is observed to be advantageous for small networks. When the number of nodes is about 25 or higher and all node pairs have traffic, this advantage drops as the number of nodes in a network increases. For the fat-tree data center topology, the benefit of multipath routing also drops as the number of pods increases. Our findings are somewhat against a common belief (expressed by the term "load sharing") that multipath routing is significantly better in effective distribution of traffic over the network resources.}},
  author       = {{Liu, X. and Mohanraj, S. and Pioro, Michal and Medhi, D.}},
  booktitle    = {{[Host publication title missing]}},
  isbn         = {{978-1-4799-6203-7}},
  language     = {{eng}},
  pages        = {{143--154}},
  publisher    = {{IEEE - Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers Inc.}},
  title        = {{Multipath Routing From a Traffic Engineering Perspective: How Beneficial is It?}},
  url          = {{http://dx.doi.org/10.1109/ICNP.2014.34}},
  doi          = {{10.1109/ICNP.2014.34}},
  year         = {{2014}},
}