Offloading IP Flows onto Lambda-Connections

Abstract

Abstract. Optical networks are capable of switching IP traffic via lambda connections. In this way, big IP flows that overload the regular IP routing level may be moved to the optical level, where they get better Quality of Service (QoS). At the same time, the IP routing level is off-loaded and can serve smaller flows better. Within this context, this paper analyses the eligibility of IP flows to be moved to the optical level. In this analysis, we observe the percentage of IP traffic as well as the amount of IP flows moved to the optical level while using various definitions for an IP flow. The main contribution of this paper is to show how the amount of IP traffic transferred over lambda-connections considerably depends on the definition used for a flow.

Characterization of IP flows eligible for lambda-connections in optical networks

“…Similarly to our investigation presented in this paper, the aforementioned authors performed a significant variation in the time intervals (1, 5 and 30 minutes) and they concluded that the perceived load is the same independent of the time interval used. We also proved that in a previous work [20]. In spite of the significant variation in the time intervals, Papagiannaki et al only used a single definition for a flow based on the network prefixes exported by Border Gateway Protocol (BGP) [21] routers.…”

“…In a more recent work [20], we extended our previous investigation [22] by observing the percentage of IP traffic and the amount of IP flows moved to the optical level. At the same time, we used the same variation in the definition of a flow presented in our previous work [22], but, in contrast, we collected 2 weeks of traces divided in different time intervals (5 and 30 minutes).…”

Self-management of hybrid optical and packet switching networks

“…This definition identifies a flow as a set of IP packets that share the same values for the following 5 fields: source IP address, destination IP address, source port, destination port, and protocol. However, different definitions for flows do exist, by choosing coarser or finer flow definitions [57] [59]. Within this context, our analysis setup consisted of using different flow fields than the traditional 5-tuple to define IP flows.…”