Effect of degree-preserving, assortative rewiring on OSPF router configuration

Abstract

We study the impact of degree-preserving rewiring on the routing table configuration in an OSPF network. Degree-preserving rewiring may be applied to optimize specific network characteristics, such as assortativity. Rewiring has significant impact on IP router tables. This manifests itself through the number of nodes that are affected by the rewiring and the average number of routing table entries that are modified per affected node. Networks with high link density are generally less impacted. Through the use of Software Defined Networks (SDN), a number of rewiring steps can be aggregated, leading to fewer routing table updates in total. For aggregation of 15 - 20 rewiring steps, depending on network class and characteristics, almost all nodes in the network are affected.