Topology design of Metro Ethernet Networks based on load balance criterion

Topology design of metro Ethernet networks is a constrained optimization problem, so we need to consider multiple criteria with different units, simultaneously. In this paper, we define three major criterions: load balancing over links, load balancing on switches and shortest path selection. We can weigh the importance of each criterion based on our goal. We study a design method of network topology using average rank that is calculated by averaging all the ranks of each criterion. This method requires small amount of calculation, and the principle of topology evaluation is easy to understand. This method ranks all of the possible topologies and finds the best structure not only based on shortest path selection but also based on load balancing on links and switches, then suggests the best topology and determines the bandwidths of links and switching capacities of nodes. Through some simulations on a typical network, we show effectiveness of our approach.