Optimizing Data Plane Resources for Multipath Flows

In many modern networks, such as datacenters, optical networks, and multiprotocol label switching (MPLS), the delivery of a traffic flow with a certain bandwidth demand over a single network path is either not possible or not cost-effective. In these cases, it is very often possible to improve the network's bandwidth utilization by splitting the traffic flow over multiple efficient paths. While using multiple paths for the same traffic flow increases the efficiency of the network, it consumes expensive forwarding resources from the network nodes, such as TCAM entries of Ethernet/MPLS switches and wavelengths/lightpaths of optical switches. In this paper, we define several problems related to splitting a traffic flow over multiple paths while minimizing the consumption of forwarding resources, and present efficient algorithms for solving these problems.