GA3: scalable, distributed address assignment for dynamic data center networks

Deployment and maintenance of current data center networks is costly and prone to errors. In order to avoid manual configuration, many of them require centralized administrators which constitute a clear bottleneck, while distributed approaches do not guarantee sufficient flexibility or robustness. T...

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Bibliographic Details
Published inAnnales des télécommunications Vol. 72; no. 11-12; pp. 693 - 702
Main Authors Rojas, Elisa, Alvarez-Horcajo, Joaquin, Martinez-Yelmo, Isaias, Arco, Jose M., Carral, Juan A.
Format Journal Article
LanguageEnglish
Published Cham Springer International Publishing 01.12.2017
Springer Nature B.V
Subjects
Circuits
Communications Engineering
Computer centers
Computer Communication Networks
Engineering
Ethernet
Frames
Information and Communication
Information Systems and Communication Service
Labels
Networks
Protocol (computers)
R & D/Technology Policy
Shortest-path problems
Signal,Image and Speech Processing
Switches
Switching theory
Traffic control
Misconfiguration detection
Data centers
Shortest path bridges
Automatic address assignment
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Summary:Deployment and maintenance of current data center networks is costly and prone to errors. In order to avoid manual configuration, many of them require centralized administrators which constitute a clear bottleneck, while distributed approaches do not guarantee sufficient flexibility or robustness. This paper describes and evaluates GA3 (Generalized Automatic Address Assignment), a discovery protocol that assigns multiple unique labels to all the switches in a hierarchical network, without any modification of hosts or the standard Ethernet frames. Labeling is distributed and uses probes. These labels can be leveraged for shortest path routing without tables, as in the case of the Torii protocol, but GA3 also allows other label-based routing protocols (such as PortLand or ALIAS). Additionally, GA3 can detect miswirings in the network. Furthermore, control traffic is only necessary upon network deployment rather than periodically. Simulation results showed a reduced convergence time of less than 2 s and 100 kB/s of bandwidth (to send the GA3 frames) in the worst case for popular data center topologies, which outperforms other similar protocols.
ISSN:0003-4347
1958-9395
DOI:10.1007/s12243-017-0569-4