A Simple Approximation to Minimum-Delay Routing

The conventional approach to routing in computer networks consists of using a heuristic to compute a single shortest path from a source to a destination. Single-path routing is very responsive to topological and link-cost changes; however, except under light traffic loads, the delays obtained with this type of routing are far from optimal. Furthermore, if link costs are associated with delays, single-path routing exhibits oscillatory behavior and becomes unstable as traffic loads increase. On the other hand, minimumdelay routing approaches can minimize delays only when traffic is stationary or very slowly changing. We present a “near-optimal” routing framework that offers delays comparable to those of optimal routing and that is as flexible and responsive as single-path routing protocols proposed to date. First, an approximation to the Gallager’s minimum-delay routing problem is derived, and then algorithms that implement the approximation scheme are presented and verified....

• Type: Conference
• Year: 1999
• Where: SIGCOMM
• Authors: Srinivas Vutukury, J. J. Garcia-Luna-Aceves
• Keywords: Communications, Delays, Routing, SIGCOMM 1999, Single-path Routing