A Network Management System for Handling Scientific Data Flows

Abstract

Large scientific data transfers often occur at high rates causing increased burstiness in Internet traffic. To limit the adverse effects of these high-rate large-sized flows, which are referred to as $$\alpha $$? flows, on delay-sensitive audio/video flows, a network management system called Alpha Flow Traffic Engineering System (AFTES) is proposed for intra-domain traffic engineering. An offline approach is used in which AFTES analyzes NetFlow records collected by routers, extracts source---destination address prefixes of $$\alpha $$? flows, and uses these prefixes to configure firewall filters at ingress routers of a provider's network to redirect future $$\alpha $$? flows to traffic-engineered paths and isolated queues. The effectiveness of this scheme was evaluated through an analysis of 7 months of NetFlow data obtained from an ESnet router. For this data set, 91 % of bytes generated by $$\alpha $$? flows during high-rate intervals would have been directed had AFTES been deployed. The negative aspect of using address prefixes in firewall filters, i.e., the redirection of $$\beta $$β flows to $$\alpha $$?-flow paths/queues, was also quantified.