The Optimal Rate-Limiting Timer of BGP for Routing Convergence

Jian QIU
Ruibing HAO
Xing LI

Publication
IEICE TRANSACTIONS on Communications   Vol.E88-B    No.4    pp.1338-1346
Publication Date: 2005/04/01
Online ISSN: 
DOI: 10.1093/ietcom/e88-b.4.1338
Print ISSN: 0916-8516
Type of Manuscript: Special Section PAPER (Special Section on Internet Technology V)
Category: 
Keyword: 
BGP,  routing convergence,  optimal timer,  

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Summary: 
BGP might experience a lengthy path exploration process to reach the convergence after the routing changes. found that the BGP rate-limiting timer--MinRouteAdvertisementInterval (MRAI) has an optimal value Mo that achieves the best trade-off between the stability and the convergence speed. In this paper, with the aid of a timed BGP model, we investigate the effects of MRAI and its optimal value Mo for the BGP convergence process. We find that an adequately long MRAI timer can batch-remove candidate paths and ensure the routing stability in the convergence process. There exists a minimal MRAI Ms that achieves the effect, which is also the upper bound of Mo and provides an approximation of Mo. We calculate the approximations of Ms for different settings and estimate the optimal MRAI for the Internet. According to the results, the optimal MRAI for the Internet might be 5-10 times less than the current default value used in the Internet. The simulations taken with SSFNet and the experiments conducted over the Planet-Lab demonstrate the correctness of our analysis.