Simple path diversity algorithm for interdomain routing

Abstract

The border gateway protocol (BGP) handles the task of establishing paths between autonomous systems (AS). As the BGP does not incorporate measures of round-trip time into the decision and does not provide path diversity for a destination, this study proposes a simple path diversity algorithm (SPDA) for interdomain routing. The SPDA comprises three steps. First, the BGP is extended to allow the BGP routing table to save multiple paths for any destination. Second, a given source node determines whether the point of congestion occurs along the best path. Third, if congestion occurs along the best path, the source node specifies an alternate path and directs traffic over the best and alternate paths concurrently. Simulation results indicate that the SPDA produces better performance than existing approaches in average end-to-end delay, average packet loss rate and average throughput.