Shortcut Switching Strategy in Metro Ethernet networks

IEEE Spanning Tree Protocol (STP) is a layer-2 protocol which provides a loop-free connectivity across various network nodes. STP does this task by reducing the topology of a switched network to a tree topology where redundant ports are blocked. Blocked ports are then kept in a standby mode of operation until a network failure occurs. In STP, there is not any traffic engineering mechanism for load balancing. This results in uneven load distribution and bottlenecks especially close to the Root. This protocol imposes a severe penalty on the performance and scalability of Metro Ethernet networks, since it makes inefficient use of links and switches. In this paper, we propose a novel switching strategy named Shortcut Switching Strategy (SSS) that uses blocked ports to forward frames in some special and restricted cases. It is an improved version of the standard STP and its main advantages are simplicity and backward-compatibility. Shortcut Switching Strategy decreases the average traffic volume on links and switches, improves load balancing on links and switches and reduces the Bandwidth Blocking Probability. We will demonstrate these improvements by using analytical and simulation methods for some well-known topologies. Simulation results show that using SSS can give about 25% reduction in average link loads, average switch loads and average number of hop counts compared to STP.