Deflection routing in complex networks

Abstract

Deflection routing refers to a protocol consisting of a table-based routing protocol, plus a software module responsible for deflection. When a link is congested, or a queueing delay is too long, a packet can be forwarded by the deflection module. Routing table is overridden and the deflection module "deflects" the packet away from the normal path, by-passing the congestion point. The packet then arrives to its next hop and hooks up to another path toward its destination. The packet may be deflected more than once if needed. In contrast to adapting to topology changes, adapting to traffic changes is a more challenging objective. In this thesis, I study using deflection routing to achieve the aforementioned objective, and report several studies to address the technical difficulties. Afterward, I propose an enhanced routing protocol based upon deflection routing - Random Early Deflection (RED-f) routing protocol, which allows packets to take different paths preemptively before congestion is developed.

Date of Award	15 Feb 2013
Original language	English
Awarding Institution	City University of Hong Kong
Supervisor	Guanrong CHEN (Supervisor)