Overlay Networks: Applications, Coexistence with IP Layer, and Transient Dynamics

Overlay networks have emerged as a promising paradigm for providing customizable and reliable services at the application layer, such as fault-resilient routing, multicast, and content delivery. This chapter focuses on infrastructure-based overlay networks, where pre-selected nodes (located in one or multiple network domains) are connected to one another through application-layer routing. Overlay routing allows individual flows to optimize route selection based on specific metrics like delay, loss rate, or throughput. When different overlays are simultaneously and independently conducting routing control, they may unintentionally interfere with each other, leading to traffic oscillations. Similarly, problematic interactions can occur between IP and overlay networks. For example, traffic matrices become more dynamic and ambiguous, making them harder to estimate, and load-balancing policies at IP layer can be undermined. We will review existing works that model such interactions and provide guidelines to circumvent these problems.

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