Towards Large-Scale Flat Networks
This was a project in collaboration with Siemens. Flat networks like Ethernet have many advantages in terms of simplicity and flexibility, e.g., plug-&-play and little or no configuration requirements. However, they suffer from a number of potential scalability limitations, which have limited the scope of their deployments and promoted the use of (hierarchical) routed solutions to build large networks, the Internet being a case in point. This work is not aimed at replacing the Internet with one big flat network, but it explores various issues aimed at improving the scalability of flat networks. In particular, it targets two important factors that affect scalability: (i) reliance on broadcast for address discovery; and (ii) loop prevention during path changes.
Penn Contributors
Publications
- S. Ray, R. Guerin, and R. Sofia, “A Distributed Hash Table based Address Resolution Scheme for Large-scale Ethernet Networks.” Proc. ICC’07, Glasgow, Scotland, June 2007.
- S. Ray, R. Guerin, and R. Sofia, “Distributed Path Computation without Transient Loops: An Intermediate Variables Approach.” Proc. ITC’20, Ottawa, Canada, June 2007.