BANANAS: A Framework for Explicit, Multipath Routing in the Internet ?

Today the Internet offers a single path between end-systems even though it intrinsically has a large multiplicity of paths. In this paper we present BANANAS, an architectural framework aimed at introducing multipath routing in the Internet. BANANAS uses the idea of a globally known path identifier, known as “PathID” to achieve source 1 specified, explicit, multipath routing in a partially upgraded network. We show that BANANAS allows introduction of sophisticated explicit and multipath routing capabilities in the context of connectionless routing protocols (e.g. OSPF, IS-IS, BGP etc.). BANANAS framework allows flexibility in function placement and complexity management. Results from complexity analysis, SSFNet simulations and Linux/Zebra implementation at Utah’s Emulab testbed have been used to evaluate and illustrate the BANANAS framework.