Distributed Load Balancing From the Edge in IP Networks

To improve bandwidth utilization in IP networks, flow aggregates are typically split over multiple paths. In this context, we propose a fully distributed load balancing mechanism that operates only from the edge. Each source is able to determine the split ratios based on already available link state information so as to minimize the maximum link utilization in the network. Without extra signaling, our solution provides a feasible load balancing at each iteration and diminishing returns until convergence to a stable state. Through numerical results on a wide variety of instances, we show that it converges to a near-optimal solution in a few iterations. Thanks to packet-level simulations on an SD-WAN scenario, we also compare its performance in a dynamic environment over centralized and legacy load balancing solutions.