Abstract

The evaluation of dynamic Traffic Engineering (TE) algorithms is usually carried out using some specific network(s), traffic pattern(s) and traffic engineering objective(s). As the behavior of a TE algorithm is a consequence of the interactions between the network, the traffic demand and the algorithm itself, the relevance of TE may depend on several network design aspects. In this paper, we evaluate well-known TE algorithms using real-world and generated network topologies and traffic demands. By re-scaling observed traffic demands, we are able to observe the behavior of TE algorithms under a variety of situations, which may not be observable in reality. We identify distinct network load regimes that correspond to different behaviors of the TE algorithms. We also study the impact of several network design aspects, like network provisioning and redundancy, on the relevance of TE algorithms. We find that there are specific situations under which TE algorithms are useful. These situations depend highly on shortcomings in the network provisioning as well as on the availability of alternative paths in the network.