A survey of multipath routing for traffic engineering

Traffic engineering broadly relates to optimization of the operational performance of a network. This survey discusses techniques like multi-path routing using traffic splitting, constraint-based routing, pathprotection etc. that are used for traffic engineering. Multipath routing can be effectively used for maximum utilization of network reso urces. It gives the node a choice of next hops for the same destination. The various algorithms discussed give solutions for effectively calculating the multipaths and ways to minimize delay and increase throughput. Multipath routing is capable of aggregating the resources of multiple paths and reducing the blocking capabilities in QoS oriented networks, allowing data transfer at higher rate when compared to single path. It also increases the reliability of delivery. We surveyed the various multipath routing mechanisms for traffic engineering. Especially, these works can be applied to MPLS/GMPLS network, then enhance network performance through traffic engineering and meet the QoS requirements.