Resolving IP Alias Based on Cross Points

Router-level topology maps are very useful for topology study. It can be constructed on the base of data collected by active measurement. Problems occur during the construction process, one of which is the alias resolution problem, focusing on how to identify addresses belonging to the same router. Alias resolution deals with the very task. Researches show the importance of the accuracy, as it will affect the representatives of the constructed map, and further impact the results derived in the topology study. In this paper, we discuss the necessary condition whether an alias pair can be resolved from the probe traces. We formulate cross point based alias resolution problem as a graph theoretic problem, present an algorithm for alias resolution based on cross information of a set of traces and prove its correctness and completeness. The experimental result on the collected data shows improvements in accuracy and efficiency over the existing approaches.