Routing Path Assignment for Joint Load Balancing and Fast Failure Recovery in IP Network

Distributed link-state routing protocols, including Open Shortest Path First (OSPF) and Intermediate System-Intermediate System (IS-IS), have successfully provided robust shortest path routing for IP networks. However, shortest path routing is inflexible and sometimes results in congestion on some critical links. By separating the control plane and the data plane, the centralized control of Software Defined Networking (SDN)-based approach possesses flexible routing capabilities. Fibbing is an approach that can achieve centralized control over a network running distributed routing protocols. In a Fibbing-controlled IP network, the controller cleverly generates fake protocol messages to manipulate routers to steer the flow of the desired paths. However, introducing fake nodes destroys the structure of the loop-free property of Loop-Free Alternate (LFA) that is used to achieve fast failure recovery in IP networks. This paper addresses this issue and presents a solution to provision routing paths so a Fibbing network can still apply LFA in the network. The proposed network jointly considers load-balanced and fast failure recovery. We formulate the problem as an integer linear programming problem. The numerical results reveal that the proposed method can provide 100% survivability against any single node or single link failure.

Automated summary

This paper discusses the potential issues that may arise when using Fibbing to control an IP network, and presents a solution to ensure fast failure recovery and load balancing in the network while applying Fibbing technology.