A MPLS/LDP Distributed Architecture for Next Generation Routers

摘要

One of the main concerns of network operators is that current routers are not scalable in order to meet future traffic requirements on the core Internet taking into account new applications. The next generation routers with petabit switching capacity are being built to serve higher demands. Their processing capability is enhanced by additional memory and computing resources on control and line cards with a very large number of high speed interfaces. However, the current routing software architecture is not able to fully exploit such an advanced hardware platform. This paper proposes a first distributed software architecture of MPLS/LDP targeting the next generation routers. We investigate the ability of offloading components of the current centralized architecture of MPLS/LDP on to line cards in order to share the load between the control and line cards. This allows the signaling to be achieved entirely at the line card level, hence, improving the robustness, scalability and resiliency of the system. Performance evaluation, considering the CPU utilization and the number of exchanged messages, is also presented.