Abstract
Multi-rooted tree topologies are commonly used to construct high-bandwidth data center network fabrics. In these networks, switches typically rely on equal-cost multipath (ECMP) routing techniques to split traffic across multiple paths, such that packets within a flow traverse the same end-to-end path. Unfortunately, since ECMP splits traffic based on flow-granularity, it can cause load imbalance across paths resulting in poor utilization of network resources. More fine-grained traffic splitting techniques are typically not preferred because they can cause packet reordering that can, according to conventional wisdom, lead to severe TCP throughput degradation. In this work, we revisit this fact in the context of regular data center topologies such as fat-tree architectures. We argue that packet-level traffic splitting, where packets of a flow are sprayed through all available paths, would lead to a better load-balanced network, which in turn leads to significantly more balanced queues and much higher throughput compared to ECMP.
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Index Terms
- On the efficacy of fine-grained traffic splitting protocolsin data center networks
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On the efficacy of fine-grained traffic splitting protocolsin data center networks
SIGCOMM '11: Proceedings of the ACM SIGCOMM 2011 conferenceMulti-rooted tree topologies are commonly used to construct high-bandwidth data center network fabrics. In these networks, switches typically rely on equal-cost multipath (ECMP) routing techniques to split traffic across multiple paths, such that ...
On the efficacy of fine-grained traffic splitting protocols in data center networks
Performance evaluation reviewCurrent multipath routing techniques split traffic at a per-flow level because, according to conventional wisdom, forwarding packets of a TCP flow along different paths leads to packet reordering which is detrimental to TCP. In this paper, we revisit ...
On the efficacy of fine-grained traffic splitting protocols in data center networks
SIGMETRICS '12: Proceedings of the 12th ACM SIGMETRICS/PERFORMANCE joint international conference on Measurement and Modeling of Computer SystemsCurrent multipath routing techniques split traffic at a per-flow level because, according to conventional wisdom, forwarding packets of a TCP flow along different paths leads to packet reordering which is detrimental to TCP. In this paper, we revisit ...
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