Traffic-Aware Fast Path Adaptation Scheme in SRv6 Networks

SRv6 has received high attention as one of key technologies for achieving deterministic networking (DN) because it can explicitly define and control network paths. However, even using SRv6, unexpected burst traffic in the network can still cause jitter and packet drops. In this study, we propose a traffic-aware fast path adaptation scheme (TFPA) that dynamically exploits an alternate path to avoid the intermediate router where burst traffic occurs. In TFPA, a router experiencing burst traffic (i.e., origin router) sends a trigger message toward the source router. After receiving the trigger message, each router evaluates the stability of the routers in networks by counting how many trigger messages are sent from the routers. In addition, the router (i.e., junction router), which received the trigger message directly from the origin router, creates a new path to the destination based on the previously evaluated stability and forwards the traffic through the path by encapsulating the original packets with new segment routing header. Evaluation results demonstrate that TFPA effectively reduces the number of delayed packets compared to the approach of generating an alternate path at the source router.