Two-phase routing for load balancing in lossless and lossy networks

Abstract

Shortest path routing algorithms dominate the Internet, but have their limitations that degrade the network performance as the traffic load is increasing. Shortest path routing may cause congestion on certain links while other links remain underutilized. Two-phase routing algorithms can reduce congestion due to adverse traffic patterns by means of load balancing. In this paper, we present the performance of two-phase routing algorithms in real wide area network topologies, and regular topologies typical for data centers. Also, we will analyze the influence of load balancing on goodput of TCP transport protocols in datacenter networks.