A Distributed Approach to End-to-End Network Topology Inference

Abstract— To construct an efficient overlay network, the information of underlay is important. However, the inference of an underlay topology is not easy. We consider using end-toend measurement tools such as traceroute to infer the underlay topology among a group of hosts. Since pair-wise traceroutes among hosts take a long time and generate much network traffic, Max-Delta has been proposed to infer a highly accurate topology with a low number of traceroutes. However, Max-Delta relies on a central server to collect traceroute results and to select paths for hosts to measure. It is hence not scalable to large groups. In this paper, we investigate a distributed version of Max-Delta scheme in order to support scalable inference. In our scheme, each host joins an overlay tree before conducting traceroutes. A host then independently selects paths to traceroute and exchanges traceroute results with others through the overlay tree. As a result, each host can maintain a partially discover...

• Type: Conference
• Year: 2007
• Where: ICC
• Authors: Xing Jin, Qiuyan Xia, Shueng-Han Gary Chan
• Keywords: Communications, ICC 2007, Overlay Tree, Traceroute, Underlay Topology