An automated topological analysis of Multiple Routing Configurations

Topological changes in IP networks may significantly influence the performance of networking algorithms, which therefore should be carefully evaluated using a large topology pool with diverse characteristics. In this paper, we present an automated topology generation and analysis tool to perform an elaborate topological dependency analysis of a Multi Topology Routing based IP Fast Re-Route technology, namely Multiple Routing Configurations. Our tool is used to generate 11, 500 topologies with diverse properties by selectively varying the parameters of the existing topology generation models. Through its extensive topological diversity and in-depth analysis capabilities, we discover a significant correlation, such that MRC requires higher number of virtual topologies to provide full alternate path coverage if a network tends to have a higher number of hub nodes. The discovery of such a correlation demonstrates the effectiveness of our tool in evaluating the performance of networking algorithms. Inspired by this correlation, we propose an extension to MRC reducing its operational complexity.