HURP/HURBA: Zero-Configuration Hierarchical Up/Down Routing and Bridging Architecture for Ethernet Backbones and Campus Networks Articles uri icon

authors

  • IBAÑEZ FERNANDEZ, GUILLERMO AGUSTIN
  • GARCIA MARTINEZ, ALBERTO
  • CARRAL, J. A.
  • GONZALEZ, PEDRO A.
  • AZCORRA SALOÑA, ARTURO
  • ARCO, JOSE M.

publication date

  • January 2010

start page

  • 41

end page

  • 56

issue

  • 1

volume

  • 54

International Standard Serial Number (ISSN)

  • 1389-1286

Electronic International Standard Serial Number (EISSN)

  • 1872-7069

abstract

  • Ethernet switched networks do not scale appropriately due to limitations inherent to the spanning tree protocol. Ethernet architectures based on routing over a virtual topology in which turns are prohibited offer
    improved performance over spanning tree, although in some cases suffer
    from excessive computational complexity. Up/Down routing is a turn
    prohibition algorithm with low computational complexity. In this paper
    we propose HURBA, a new layer-two architecture that improves Up/Down
    routing performance due to an optimization based on the use of
    hierarchical addressing, while preserving the computational complexity
    of Up/Down. The resulting architecture requires zero-configuration, uses
    the same frame format as Ethernet, allows upgrades by software update,
    and is compatible with 802.1D bridges by means of encapsulation. HURP
    protocol builds automatically a core with the interconnected HURP
    routing bridges and the standard bridges get connected to the edges in
    standard spanning trees. Simulations show that the performance of HURP,
    evaluated over various combinations of network topology and size, is
    close to the one of shortest path, is consistently better than that of
    Up/Down, and is equal or better than Turn Prohibition, with the
    advantage of having a lower complexity.