Longer is better: exploiting path diversity in data center networks

Tso, F.P., Hamilton, G., Weber, R., Perkins, C.S. and Pezaros, D.P. (2013) Longer is better: exploiting path diversity in data center networks. In: IEEE International Conference on Distributed Computing Systems (ICDCS), Philadelphia, PA, USA, 8-11 Jul 2013, pp. 430-439. (doi: 10.1109/ICDCS.2013.36)

Abstract

Data Center (DC) networks exhibit much more centralized characteristics than the legacy Internet, yet they are operated by similar distributed routing and control algorithms that fail to exploit topological redundancy to deliver better and more sustainable performance. Multipath protocols, for example, use node-local and heuristic information to only exploit path diversity between shortest paths. In this paper, we use a measurementbased approach to schedule flows over both shortest and nonshortest paths based on temporal network-wide utilization. We present the Baatdaat1 flow scheduling algorithm which uses spare DC network capacity to mitigate the performance degradation of heavily utilized links. Results show that Baatdaat achieves close to optimal Traffic Engineering by reducing network-wide maximum link utilization by up to 18% over Equal-Cost MultiPath (ECMP) routing, while at the same time improving flow completion time by 41% - 95%.

• Item Type: Conference Proceedings
• Status: Published
• Refereed: Yes
• Glasgow Author(s) Enlighten ID: Tso, Dr Fung Po and Perkins, Dr Colin and Pezaros, Professor Dimitrios
• Authors: Tso, F.P., Hamilton, G., Weber, R., Perkins, C.S., and Pezaros, D.P.
• College/School: College of Science and Engineering > School of Computing Science