MultiState-BGP Manager for Multi-Domain SDN

Abstract

The Border Gateway Protocol (BGP) is used between Autonomous Systems (AS) to enable and exchange routing information. AS are allocated an Autonomous System Number (ASN). The ASN, utilized in BGP routing, represents the grouping of Internet Protocol (IP) routing prefixes allotted to a single administrative domain. Classless Interdomain-Routing (CIDR) is used to support hierarchical routing in the Internet backbone. As the Internet has grown, BGP has been updated to tackle challenges, including the growing routing tables, improved load-balancing, BGP-hijacking and security, and AS transit times. One major issue remaining is the BGP convergence delay, which is the time taken for a set of routers to agree on the network topology. Convergence delay has become an issue for large networks due to changing network topologies causing route updates and path failures that cause instability in the network. A network's instability might cause packet loss or delay, loss of connectivity, and a delay in message transmission. In this research, we propose a novel technique named “MultiState-BGP Manager” that controls and manages multi-domain SDN networks and decreases the BGP convergence delay.