A Mixed Integer Programming Solution for Network Optimization under Tunneling-based Traffic Engineering Schemes

In order to utilize the network resources efficiently, many traffic engineering schemes have been proposed to distribute the loads on links by controlling traffic routes. Traffic engineering based on tunneling can finely control traffic by setting a route of each flow explicitly. In the tunneling-based traffic engineering scheme, it is not easy to choose the best tunnel node pairs and the best flow allocation to the tunnels. In this paper, we propose a method to calculate an optimal solution in terms of the number of tunnels that can mitigate network congestion or the ratio of each flow on the links in a given network topology. We formulate the problems as mixed integer programming (MIP) and obtain optimal solutions using a high speed MIP solver. We have conducted experiments in the two kinds of problems on two network topologies. We calculate optimal solutions using a MIP solver, and evaluate the calculation time and improvement of network congestion by adding tunnels.