We present a new algorithm and framework for dynamic routing of bandwidth guaranteed flows. The problem is motivated by the
need to dynamically set up bandwidth guaranteed paths in carrier and ISP networks. Traditional routing algorithms such as
minimum hop routing or widest path routing do not take advantage of any knowledge about the traffic distribution or ingress-egress
pairs, and therefore can often lead to severe network underutilization. Our work is inspired by the recently proposed “minimum
interference routing” algorithm (MIRA) of Kodialam and Lakshman, but it improves on their approach in several ways. Our main
idea is to use a “traffic profile” of the network, obtained by measurements or service level agreements (SLAs), as a rough
predictor of the future traffic distribution. We use this profile to solve a multicom-modity network flow problem, whose output is used both to guide our online path selection algorithm as well as impose admission control. The offline multicommodity solution seems very effective at
distributing the routes and avoiding bottlenecks around hot spots. In particular, our algorithm can anticipate a flow’s blocking
effect on groups of ingress-egress pairs, while MIRA only considers one ingress-egress pair at a time. Our simulation results
show that the new algorithm outperforms shortest path, widest path, and minimum interference routing algorithms on several
metrics, including the fraction of requests routed and the fraction of requested bandwidth routed. Finally, the framework
is quite general and can be extended in numerous ways to accommodate a variety of traffic management priorities in the network.
Research performed at Washington University in St. Louis, partially supported by NSF grant ANI 9813723.