Enhanced Mechanism for Link Failure Rerouting in Software-Defined Exchange Point Networks

ABSTRACT
Internet Exchange Point (IXP) is a system that increases network bandwidth performance. Internet exchange
points facilitate interconnection among network providers, including Internet Service Providers (ISPs) and Content
Delivery Providers (CDNs). To improve service management, Internet exchange point providers have adopted
the Software Defined Network (SDN) paradigm. This implementation is known as a Software-Defined Exchange
Point (SDX). It improves network providers’ operations and management. However, performance issues still exist,
particularly with multi-hop topologies. These issues include switch memory costs, packet processing latency,
and link failure recovery delays. The paper proposes Enhanced Link Failure Rerouting (ELFR), an improved
mechanism for rerouting link failures in software-defined exchange point networks. The proposed mechanism
aims to minimize packet processing time for fast link failure recovery and enhance path calculation efficiency
while reducing switch storage overhead by exploiting the Programming Protocol-independent Packet Processors
(P4) features. The paper presents the proposed mechanisms’ efficiency by utilizing advanced algorithms and
demonstrating improved performance in packet processing speed, path calculation effectiveness, and switch
storage management compared to current mechanisms. The proposed mechanism shows significant improvements,
leading to a 37.5% decrease in Recovery Time (RT) and a 33.33% decrease in both Calculation Time (CT) and
Computational Overhead (CO) when compared to current mechanisms. The study highlights the effectiveness and
resource efficiency of the proposed mechanism in effectively resolving crucial issues in multi-hop software-defined
exchange point networks.
KEYWORDS
Link failure recovery; Internet exchange point; software-defined exchange point; software-defined network; multihop topologies