Quality-of-service routing using maximally disjoint paths

Abstract

We apply and evaluate a new efficient algorithm for finding maximally link disjoint pairs of paths in a network. We apply this algorithm for QoS routing in connection-oriented networks that support calls with multiple QoS requirements. Our algorithm (called MADSWIP) is applied for precomputing paths in advance of call arrivals. Through simulations, we compare our QoS routing method to another method that is typical of what a switch vendor might implement today. We then examine the performance of three different policies for selecting a path among multiple potential paths. We also study the effects of decreasing the density of a network topology. We study two styles of topologies: commercial-style and random topologies. We demonstrate that precomputing paths that have minimal overlap is more important than precomputing paths that explicitly address all QoS metrics in a network. We also show that load balancing policies outperform call packing policies in networks that support diverse applications.