Random Walks in Routing Landscapes

TL;DR

This paper introduces a landscape metaphor for routing problems in packet networks, using random walk techniques to analyze landscape properties and aid in developing effective algorithms.

Contribution

It presents a novel combinatorial optimization perspective on routing landscapes and introduces a random walk method for their analysis.

Findings

Landscape properties help evaluate problem difficulty

Random walk technique effectively analyzes landscape features

Examples demonstrate the method's applicability

Abstract

In this paper we present a combinatorial optimisation view on the routing problem for connectionless packet networks by using the metaphor of a landscape. We examine the main properties of the routing landscapes as we define them and how they can help us on the evaluation of the problem difficulty and the generation of effective algorithms. We also present the random walk statistical technique to evaluate the main properties of those landscapes and a number of examples to demonstrate the use of the method.