A distributed routing scheme for networks of the future

A dynamic multipath routing scheme for homogeneous high-speed networks is proposed. The fundamental objective is to bridge the gap between routing and congestion control as the network becomes congested. Because propagation delay far outshadows queuing and transmission delay in high-speed networks, the proposed routing scheme works as a shortest path (minimum delay) first algorithm under a light traffic condition. However as the shortest path becomes congested, the source node uses multiple paths when and if available in order to distribute the load and reduce packet loss. This results in a more efficient use of the network facility and near-optimal flow assignment. The routing algorithm incorporates an update mechanism that uses information obtained from the call setup procedure in the switch, as well as real-time measurements