Controlling performance in the congested parts of an asymmetric network using controls and routing

Abstract

In this paper, we attempt to improve the performance in congested parts (CP) of an asymmetric network using network controls and routing mechanisms. Typically, an asymmetric network is characterized by non-uniform link capacities or uneven traffic load or both. In such a network, certain service classes can experience poor performance in parts of the network, even when the average performance is very close to the expected performance level. We studied a network derived from an actual service provider network with asymmetric concentration of traffic. We have developed two metrics in order to capture the congested part behavior in a network. In order to understand the generality of our conclusions, we used three variations of our network and show that controls like Service class based Multi-link Dynamic Capacity Reservation (SMDCR) with a properly chosen reservation factor, significantly reduce variability in the performance over all parts of the network.