Comparison of iBGP topologies

Virginie Van den Schrieck

Route reflection is a widely used alternative to full mesh iBGP, but if it reduces the intradomain BGP topology and the size of the routing tables, this technique also has drawbacks. It can imply a loss of optimality in the routes, as route reflectors propagates those choosen following their own criteria and not those of their clients. There is also a loss of robustness as redundancy inside the routing tables is reduced.
We propose a tool that runs simulations on a set of iBGP topologies, and uses four metrics to mesure the benefits and losses implied by route reflection. This allow us to compare different topologies and choose an efficient one. This paper also presents the result of the application of our tool on the GEANT network, which allowed us to highlight some elements affecting the efficiency of a topology with route reflection.

In CoNEXT Student Workshop, 2005.

Back to Virginie Van den Schrieck's homepage