Traffic engineering approach to virtual-link provisioning in software-defined ISP networks

Abstract

In this paper, we propose a new approach to virtual-link provisioning in ISP (Internet Service Provider) networks. The approach relies on Software Defined Networking (SDN) architecture based on OpenFlow that allows highly granular traffic splitting across multiple paths. The traffic control logic of SDN controller is divided into offline and online component. The online component handles dynamic arrivals of virtual-link requests in accordance with Service Level Agreements (SLAs) requirements. The offline component is responsible for periodic optimization of traffic distribution in the network. In this way, we tend to increase acceptance ratio for virtual-link requests and minimize degradation of best-effort traffic in a scalable manner. Our simulation results show that the proposed method for virtuallink provisioning outperforms solutions that rely on Constrained Shortest Path First (CSPF) and Equal Cost Multi-Path (ECMP) routing.