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Robust load balancing under traffic uncertainty—tractable models and efficient algorithms

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Abstract

Routing configurations that have been optimized for a nominal traffic scenario often display significant performance degradation when they are subjected to real network traffic. These degradations are due to the inherent sensitivity of classical optimization techniques to changes in model parameters combined with the significant traffic variations caused by demand fluctuations, component failures and network reconfigurations. In this paper, we review important sources for traffic variations in data networks and describe tractable models for capturing the associated traffic uncertainty. We demonstrate how robust routing settings with guaranteed performance for all foreseen traffic variations can be effectively computed via memory efficient iterative techniques and polynomial-time algorithms. The techniques are illustrated on real data from operational IP networks.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Swedish Institute of Computer Science, P.O. Box 1263, 164 29, Kista, Sweden

    Anders Gunnar

  2. School of Electrical Engineering, KTH, 100 44, Stockholm, Sweden

    Mikael Johansson

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  1. Anders Gunnar
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  2. Mikael Johansson
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Correspondence to Anders Gunnar.

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Gunnar, A., Johansson, M. Robust load balancing under traffic uncertainty—tractable models and efficient algorithms. Telecommun Syst 48, 93–107 (2011). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11235-010-9336-9

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