Network Performance Analysis of an Adaptive OSPF Routing Strategy – Effective Bandwidth Estimation

Currently Open Shortest Path First (OSPF) is the most commonly used and promising intra-domain internet routing protocol where packets are routed along shortest paths to the destination. The shortest path computation is based on some static link costs and the change of the paths only happens when existing link components become unreachable or when new link components are added. In other words, the network congestion doesn’t affect the routing decisions and, as a consequence, alternative paths, which could result in a better traffic performance, remain unused. This paper introduces and analyzes an adaptive OSPF routing strategy based on effective bandwidth estimation. Simulations carried out in the OPNET network simulator showed some preliminary, interesting results. Better network throughput (sometimes until 25,673 % better) can be reached using this adaptive routing other than the traditional OSPF, sacrificing an increase in network delay.