Overview and Principles of Internet Traffic Engineering
RFC 3272

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Network Working Group                                         D. Awduche
Request for Comments: 3272                                Movaz Networks
Category: Informational                                          A. Chiu
                                                         Celion Networks
                                                              A. Elwalid
                                                              I. Widjaja
                                                     Lucent Technologies
                                                                 X. Xiao
                                                        Redback Networks
                                                                May 2002

        Overview and Principles of Internet Traffic Engineering

Status of this Memo

   This memo provides information for the Internet community.  It does
   not specify an Internet standard of any kind.  Distribution of this
   memo is unlimited.

Copyright Notice

   Copyright (C) The Internet Society (2002).  All Rights Reserved.

Abstract

   This memo describes the principles of Traffic Engineering (TE) in the
   Internet.  The document is intended to promote better understanding
   of the issues surrounding traffic engineering in IP networks, and to
   provide a common basis for the development of traffic engineering
   capabilities for the Internet.  The principles, architectures, and
   methodologies for performance evaluation and performance optimization
   of operational IP networks are discussed throughout this document.

Table of Contents

   1.0 Introduction...................................................3
      1.1 What is Internet Traffic Engineering?.......................4
      1.2 Scope.......................................................7
      1.3 Terminology.................................................8
   2.0 Background....................................................11
      2.1 Context of Internet Traffic Engineering....................12
      2.2 Network Context............................................13
      2.3 Problem Context............................................14
         2.3.1 Congestion and its Ramifications......................16
      2.4 Solution Context...........................................16
         2.4.1 Combating the Congestion Problem......................18
      2.5 Implementation and Operational Context.....................21

Awduche, et. al.             Informational                      [Page 1]
RFC 3272        Overview and Principles of Internet TE          May 2002

   3.0 Traffic Engineering Process Model.............................21
      3.1 Components of the Traffic Engineering Process Model........23
      3.2 Measurement................................................23
      3.3 Modeling, Analysis, and Simulation.........................24
      3.4 Optimization...............................................25
   4.0 Historical Review and Recent Developments.....................26
      4.1 Traffic Engineering in Classical Telephone Networks........26
      4.2 Evolution of Traffic Engineering in the Internet...........28
         4.2.1 Adaptive Routing in ARPANET...........................28
         4.2.2 Dynamic Routing in the Internet.......................29
         4.2.3 ToS Routing...........................................30
         4.2.4 Equal Cost Multi-Path.................................30
         4.2.5 Nimrod................................................31
      4.3 Overlay Model..............................................31
      4.4 Constraint-Based Routing...................................32
      4.5 Overview of Other IETF Projects Related to Traffic
          Engineering................................................32
         4.5.1 Integrated Services...................................32
         4.5.2 RSVP..................................................33
         4.5.3 Differentiated Services...............................34
         4.5.4 MPLS..................................................35
         4.5.5 IP Performance Metrics................................36
         4.5.6 Flow Measurement......................................37
         4.5.7 Endpoint Congestion Management........................37
      4.6 Overview of ITU Activities Related to Traffic
          Engineering................................................38
      4.7 Content Distribution.......................................39
   5.0 Taxonomy of Traffic Engineering Systems.......................40
      5.1 Time-Dependent Versus State-Dependent......................40
      5.2 Offline Versus Online......................................41
      5.3 Centralized Versus Distributed.............................42
      5.4 Local Versus Global........................................42
      5.5 Prescriptive Versus Descriptive............................42
      5.6 Open-Loop Versus Closed-Loop...............................43