Toward a Distributed Control Plane Architecture for Next Generation Routers

As networks become more and more pervasive and broadband access technologies evolve to provide affordable broadband solutions for both homes and offices, one needs to rethink the architecture design for next generation routers in order to be able to deliver multiple services over high-speed interfaces and perform fast switching capabilities (e.g., multipetabit). The size and complexity of next generation networks requires a protocol transition from its classical centralized approach to a fully distributed and scalable paradigm. In this paper, we propose a new control plane architecture that is resilient and scalable where we distribute the OSPF/IS-IS, MPLS and BGP protocols using IETF-approved inter-protocol interfaces. In such architecture, forwarding tables will be updated by OSPF, IS-IS, RTM, BGP and MPLS routing protocols distributed onto multiple processors, in the interface cards themselves. We therefore revisit each of these protocols and redraw their implementation within an efficient, scalable, distributed, resilient, and fault tolerant scheme. As a proof of concept, we present the hyperchip router (PBR1280) that has been built on these grounds and discuss the performance of the proposed distributed architecture. Although some features (e.g., resiliency) still need further development, it is shown that the proposed distributed routing protocol scheme already offers a new generation of routers with significant higher switching capacity