REDUCING BURST PACKET LOSS THROUGH ROUTE-FREE FORWARDING

摘要

It is well known that today's inter-domain routing protocol, Border Gateway Protocol (BGP), converges slowly during network failures. Due to the distribution nature of Internet routing decisions and the rate-limiting timer Minimum Route Advertisement Interval (MRAI) of BGP, unavoidable convergence latency is introduced in reaction to network changes. During the period of convergence temporarily routing table inconsistencies cause short-term routing blackholes and loops which result in widespread temporary burst packet loss. In this paper, we present ROute-Free Forwarding (ROFF) - a novel technique for packet delivering continuously during periods of convergence. With slightly modifications on IP packet header and BGP, route loops and blackholes can be avoided. Our preliminary evaluation demonstrates that ROFF succeeds in reducing the number of Autonomous Systems (ASes) which experience burst packet loss and the duration of packet loss.