Flow Allocation with Path Protection in Next Generation Internet Networks

Abstract

Abstract-In this work, we study the flow allocation problem in Next Generation Internet (NGI) networks. Given a capacitated network, flow allocation consists of a simultaneous routing and bandwidth allocation problem for flows realizing a set of sourcedestination demands. We consider the case where demands are elastic and the flow realizing one demand can be arbitrary split over multiple paths. Moreover, we ensure that the allocated flows are survivable to network failures using path protection. We investigate the possibility of sharing backup capacity, thus enabling more efficient resource consumption. Depending on the optimization objective, we provide two different approaches to the problem. The first approach maximizes the total allocated volume and the second one maximizes the minimum allocated volume. We build mathematical formulations based on generalizations of the maximum multicommodity flow and the maximum concurrent flow problems. Moreover, we provide new approximation algorithms based on a primal-dual approach. These algorithms compute a solution that is within a guaranteed factor of the optimal. Numerical results enable to get deeper insights on the quality and compared performance of the different approaches.

Approximation algorithm for minimum cost flow allocation with varied survivability

“…An important remark is that the total running time (the sum for the six steps) is very competitive with the running time for the column generation approach. A complete study and further comparison is provided in [16].…”

“…An extension of this work encompasses multiple failure survivability is reported in [16]. Moreover, detailed comparison with the best practice methods, especially with column generation, is provided in [16]. Future work will include rounding the fractional solution to get integral flows and comparing the results with stochastic meta-heuristics.…”

“…Our problem takes into account varied survivability levels in terms of guaranteed protection and enables to minimize the network costs. An extension of this work encompasses multiple failure survivability is reported in [16]. Moreover, detailed comparison with the best practice methods, especially with column generation, is provided in [16].…”

“…Following the analysis provided in [13], we can scale the capacities so that ψ ≥ 1 and the total number of phases is T log D (refer to [16] for more details). Moreover, in each step, except the last step in an iteration, we increase either the weight of some edge or the value of φ by a factor 1 + .…”