Virtual Area Routing: a Scalable Intra-Domain Routing Scheme

Abstract

Abstract. As a distributed link state protocol, OSPF shows poor scalability when dealing with intra-domain routing in large networks. In this paper we present a new routing scheme called Virtual Area Routing (VAR) aimed to overcome the scalability problems of OSPF. The control plane is separated from data plane and is undertaken by dedicated elements in VAR. We show that VAR can simplify network configuration and management as well as avoid unnecessary route computation. Finally we conduct experiments in real topology and the result shows VAR can reduce control overhead and improve network performance.