A new scalable, hybrid approach for IP traffic engineering without full mesh overlaying

This paper introduces a new hybrid routing method (HRM) for IP network traffic engineering. In this method, the traffic from some source/destination pairs is routed via MPLS constraint-based routing, while the remaining traffic is routed via conventional IGP routing. The method has been used to implement a HRM traffic engineering tool. The tool enables network operators to visualize and manage traffic to avoid congestion, as well as to decide where to place MPLS tunnels. Simulation results indicate that our HRM normally needs just a small number of tunnels to achieve a network performance that is comparable to that of fully meshed MPLS model.