All-Path Routing Protocols: Analysis of Scalability and Load Balancing Capabilities for Ethernet Networks

TL;DR

This paper analyzes the scalability and load balancing of All-Path routing protocols, including ARP-Path, Flow-Path, and Bridge-Path, through comparison, analysis, and simulation to evaluate their performance in Ethernet networks.

Contribution

It introduces and compares three All-Path protocols, analyzing their scalability and load balancing capabilities both theoretically and via simulation.

Findings

Flow-Path offers full flow independence and increased path diversity.

Bridge-Path reduces forwarding table size at core bridges.

Protocols demonstrate effective load balancing in various topologies.

Abstract

This paper presents a scalability and load balancing study of the All-Path protocols, a family of distributed switching protocols based on path exploration. ARP-Path is the main protocol and it explores every possible path reaching from source to destination by using ARP messages, selecting the lowest latency path. Flow-Path and Bridge-Path are respectively the flow-based and bridge-based versions, instead of the source address-based approach of ARP-Path. While preserving the main advantages of ARP-Path, Flow-Path has the advantages of full independence of flows for path creation, guaranteeing path symmetry and increased path diversity. While Bridge-Path increases scalability by reducing forwarding table entries at core bridges. We compare the characteristics of each protocol and the convenience of using each one depending on the topology and the type of traffic. Finally, we prove their load balancing capabilities analytically and via simulation.