MPLS network tuning: enabling hitless network engineering

MPLS traffic engineering has primarily focused on efficient route setups. However, as data traffic explodes, there is an increased demand for tools that enable network-wide tuning in order to maintain high levels of end-to-end network efficiency. Network tuning aims to pro-actively reconfigure traffic without causing any service disruption. In this paper, we explore the requirements on management systems to support tuning. Network design tools have similar goal; however, the additional requirement for online, hitless optimization fundamentally differentiates tuning from traditional network design. We present an efficient algorithm for network tuning called MobiTree. Using extensive simulation results, we show that the greedy approach in MobiTree outperforms prior traffic design schemes. More importantly, it achieves the gains while ensuring a hitless reconfiguration. Given its low overhead, we propose MobiTree as an effective solution to implement in practice.