Heuristics for the MPLS Network Design with Single Path Minimum Weight Routing

MPLS provides the flexibility required for managing the way the traffic is routed through the network. However, LSP configuring is a hard task in a growing network, as more and more routes need configuring and monitoring. A viable alt ernative is to rely on a minimum weight routing protocol to determine the paths used by the LSPs . An important requirement is that the routing paths should be unique to avoid the additional ma nagement complexity required by Equal Cost MultiPathing. Here, we address the dimensioning of MPLS networks with single path minimum weight routing. To solve large scale problem instances, we propose a methodology composed by two phases: first, the network design solution is compute d based on a Greedy Randomized Adaptive Search Procedure (GRASP) with a neighbor structure g iven by an exponential growing difference set of values; then, the link weights are assigned solving an appropriate ILP model. For the network design phase, the proposed heuristic is compared with other heuristic strategies, namely, with another neighbor structure previously proposed and with a Simul ated Annealing strategy. The computational results show a significantly better performance of the pr oposed heuristic. Keywords— MPLS network design, minimum weight routing, heuristics