Affiliations: AT&T Bell Laboratories, 480 Red Hill Rd., Room 2B-230, Middletown, NJ 07748-3052, Tel: (908) 615-5955, Fax: (908) 615-5818, E-mail: sbahk@mtnet1.att.com | Electrical Engineering University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, PA 19104, Tel: (215) 898-9780, Fax: (215) 573-2768, E-mail: magda@ee.upenn.edu
Abstract: In this paper we describe briefly a dynamic multi-path routing scheme that has been considered for connection oriented homogeneous high-speed wide area Asynchronous Transfer Mode (ATM) networks. The fundamental objective of the scheme is to bridge the gap between routing and congestion control as the network becomes congested. Because propagation delay far out shadows queueing and transmission delay in high-speed networks, the proposed routing scheme works as a shortest path (minimum hop) first algorithm under light traffic conditions. However as the shortest path becomes congested, the source node uses multiple paths when and if available in order to distribute the load and reduce packet loss. The scheme is a cross between Alternate Path Routing and Trunk Reservation. We compare the performance of the proposed scheme with the Shortest Path Only Algorithm, the Alternate Path Routing Algorithm, the Random Routing Algorithm, and the Trunk Reservation Scheme. The throughput and packet loss performance are compared via simulations. These have been carried out concentrating on a five-node network, each with varying traffic patterns, the intention being to gain insight into the strengths and weaknesses of the various schemes.
