Optimizing IP Address Assignment and Static Routing at Large Scale
Jonathon Duerig, Robert Ricci, John W. Byers, Jay Lepreau · 2005
We consider the problem of optimizing the assignment of IP addresses to nodes in a network. A good assignment takes into account the natural hierarchy present in the network and assigns addresses in such a way as to minimize the sizes of routing tables on the nodes. Optimized IP address assignment benets simulators and emulators, where scale precludes manual assignment, large routing tables can limit network size, and realism can matter. It benets enterprise networks, where large routing tables can overburden the legacy routers frequently found in such networks. We outline one of the algorithms we are exploring, and describe a key underpinning: a metric, based on Routing Equivalent Sets (RES), that quanties the extent to which routes to sets of destinations can be aggregated. We present preliminary results of using RES to nd assignments that result in small routing tables. When applied to real Internet topologies, we nd that our assignment algorithm yields a compression rate of two to three over random assignment.