A realistic model to evaluate routing algorithms in the Internet

This paper addresses the problem of evaluating routing algorithms via simulation in packet-switched networks when elastic traffic is involved. It highlights some deficiencies of classical approaches that fail to capture both the complex interactions of connections traversing multiple bottlenecks and common user behaviors. The paper describes an approach devised to overcome these limitations which is particularly suited for the evaluation of routing algorithms in presence of best-effort traffic. The simulation results presented offer a deeper insight into well-known routing algorithms. Through this analysis it is clear that quantitative and also qualitative behaviors of dynamic routing algorithms based on traffic measurements may be fairly different depending on the nature of the traffic loading the network, as well as depending on its interactions with the network parameters and behavior.