Design principles and practical implementation of a Situation Aware Multipath routing algorithm

In this paper we describe the design principles and the preliminary implementation of a situation aware intra-domain routing solution, called Situation Aware Multipath (SAMP) routing algorithm. This offers an effective method to increase throughput and to achieve load balancing by attempting to prevent congestion in computer networks. The path selection is based on statistical cross-layer Quality of Service information provided by a situation-aware network management application. The originality of this approach lies in the practical implementation of a multipath algorithm which uses physical layer status information as a routing metric. The experimental results show a significant increase in the number of packets delivered to the destination in case of congestion, compared to traditional single-path and an ECMP-like routing solution. The global capacity of the network is improved as the statistical information regarding individual link traffic helps SAMP to avoid routing traffic through congested areas. Our approach can be used for QoS-constraint and real-time multimedia applications in wired networks.