Re-routing using Contraction Hierarchies in Software-Defined Networks

Abstract

According to the Open Networking Foundation (ONF), one of the reasons to reexamine traditional network architectures is the increment of mobile devices and its data transmission. The global IP traffic forecast by CISCO estimates an overall traffic increase to 396 exabytes per month in 2022, more than three times the traffic on 2017 (122 exabytes per month). In this work, we research the similarities between vehicular networks and computer networks. These similarities will allow us to implement the Contraction Hierarchies algorithm (CH) in computer networks. CH is an interdisciplinary algorithm from vehicular networks which can provide us with the elements and logic to optimize specific routing problems in computer networks. In order to implement CH, we use Software Defined Networks (SDN). SDN is a computer networks paradigm that separates the Data and Control planes. The Data plane is left to the network devices to distribute the packages, and the control plane is centralized into a Controller. By having a controller with a broad view of the network, we implement CH in order to optimize route selection. Once the route is determined, we study the possibility of using the advantages of CH to redistribute traffic in case the network elements suffer from unforeseen circumstances.