Overlay techniques in the underlay
E. Hoffmann · 2007
Traditional routing algorithms as used today in the Internet rely on a hierarchical structure of the network to be able to scale reasonably. Similarly, routing algorithms in wireless mesh networks that do not rely on a location-imposed hierarchy do not scale well. Routing algorithms as used in overlay networks for Distributed Hash Tables (DHTs), however, have shown good scalability. This paper describes two novel approaches that take these overlay network routing algorithms and techniques and apply them to the routing in the underlying network. Namely Virtual Ring Routing [3], aimed at providing scalable mesh routing offering good performance, and Routing on Flat Labels [4], aimed at demonstrating that the use of routing schemes on the Internet, that do not rely on a hierarchical structure, could be feasible.