Information Dynamics Applied to Link-State Routing

摘要

Information Dynamics is an information-centric frameworkthat provides a sufficient understanding of the characteristics of informationused in systems for better system design and implementation. In this paper,we describe how to improve link-state routing based on this framework.Link-state routing protocols such as OSPF (Open Shortest Path First)are currently used in many networks. In link-state routing, routes aredetermined based on link-delay estimates, which are periodically flooded throughout the network. This flooding of link-delay estimates is donewithout considering the relevance of these estimates to routing quality,i.e. without taking into account the usefulness of the link-delay information.We have developed a new approach that improves link-state routingby estimating future link delays and flooding these estimates only to the extent that they are relevant. This means that we consider the dynamics of the link-delay information and its usefulness. Simulation studies suggest that our approach can lead to significant reductions in routing traffic with noticeable improvements of routing quality in high-load conditions, demonstrating the effectiveness of the framework.We plan to further investigate the conditions where our information-dynamicsapproach is better than the standard approach.(Also UMIACS-TR-2001-75)