<title>Simple MPLS-based flow aggregation scheme for providing scalable quality of service</title>

Abstract

Providing Quality of Service (QoS) capabilities in IP networks is the focus of much research in the Internet community today. The Intserv architecture proposed by IETF for supporting QoS in IP networks is known not to scale well to large networks due to the per-flow mechanisms it uses. While connection-less approach has been the central design paradigm of IP networks, many researches today believe connection-oriented mechanisms similar to virtual-circuits in ATM must be incorporated in IP networks in order to provide scalable QoS. Towards this end, the MPLS (Multi-Protocol Label Switching) technology has been put forward by the IETF. A crucial scaling issue with MPLS is that large number of LSPs (Label Switched Paths) may be required in the routers resulting in increase of state size in the routers. In this paper, we introduce the notion of Label-Switched Multipaths (LSMPs) and propose a simple technique for aggregating LSP into LSMPs such that the number of labels required in the routers is significantly reduced. Based on LSMPs we describe an architecture for providing deterministic guarantees that is far more scalable than architectures based on simple LSPs or those that use only multipoint-to-point LSP aggregation.