A Study of Routing with a Clue versus Label Switching over IP Based Networks

Routing with a clue (RC) is one of the most interesting techniques invented for improving the performance of routing techniques in IP networks by distributing the IP lookup process to all nodes along the path. The technique utilizes a small unit called "clue" to carry the IP lookup information onto the next node in the path. On the other hand, multiprotocol label switching (MPLS) is claimed to be another routing technique over IP networks but employs a small unit called "label" to carry route information embedded in the packet from source to destination. In this paper, these two routing techniques over IP networks, namely, RC versus MPLS are investigated by using a simulation. Variable data rates are fluctuated into both networks ranging from 500 kbps up to 2.5 Mbps. Throughputs are collected under the same network environment. Mean queue length (MQL), mean waiting time (MWT), and network utilization (NU) are also measured in order to study how well both networks are able to manage the queue at the intermediate nodes, also how well both networks can utilize resources after the entering of packets. Simulation results are apparently proving that RC is far better than MPLS routing technique in terms of throughputs as well as queue management