Traffic Engineering Techniques and Algorithms for the Internet

Traffic engineering broadly relates to optimization of the operational performance of a network. This survey discusses techniques like multi-path routing, traffic splitting, constraint-based routing, path-protection etc. that are used for traffic engineering in contemporary Internet Service Provider (ISP) networks. These techniques can be classified under two broad classes, connectionless and connection-oriented, that dominate the current debate on next-generation routing and traffic engineering in IP networks. The connectionless approach evolves current distance-vector and link-state algorithms, or influences routing metrics. The connection-oriented approach uses signaling and is being used by techniques like Multi Protocol Label Switching (MPLS). Connection-oriented techniques offer a convenient way to monitor, allocate, reroute, and protect resources for a given traffic on an explicit and flexible basis. This survey will examine the core problems, discuss solutions in both connectionless and signaled approach, and point to topics for research and advanced development. 1 Debashis Basak is with Accelight Networks 2 Hema Tahilramani Kaur and Shivkumar Kalyanaraman are with Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, Dept of ECSE.