The mdt algorithm

Link state routing protocols such as OSPF or IS-IS currently use only best paths to forward IP packets throughout a domain. The optimality of sub-paths ensures consistency of hop by hop forwarding although paths, calculated using Dijkstra’s algorithm, are recursively composed. According to the link metric, the diversity of existing paths can be underestimated using only best paths. Hence, it reduces potential benefits of multipath applications such as load balancing and fast rerouting. In this paper, we propose a low time complexity multipath computation algorithm able to calculate at least two paths with a different first hop between all pairs of nodes in the network if such next hops exist. Using real and generated topologies, we evaluate and compare the complexity of our proposition with several techniques. Simulation results suggest that the path diversity achieved with our proposition is approximatively the same that the one obtained using consecutive Dijsktra computations, but with a lower time complexity.