Root Redundancy in Meshed Tree Bridged Networks

Abstract

Switched networks require loop-avoidance protocols to avoid looping of broadcast and multicast Loop-avoidance protocols use a tree algorithm to construct a logical tree from one root such as rapid spanning tree protocol (RSTP). RSTP results in high convergence latency and heavily impaired network performance on root switch failures. Some protocols construct a logical tree from every switch resulting in high operational overhead. We propose the Meshed Tree Protocol (MTP) to designate the number of roots based on desired network uptime and computational overhead, where a meshed tree conceptually maintains multiple tree branches from a root. MTP based on multi meshed tree algorithm (MMTA), constructs and maintains multiple meshed trees from multiple designated roots. We compare a prototype of MTP based on MMTA against RSTP using switched networks in the Global Environment for Network Innovation (GENI) testbed. MTP's root failure recovery response is several magnitudes superior to RSTP.