On the Performance of Shortest Path Routing Algorithms for Modeling and Simulation of Static Source Routed Networks -- an Extension to the Dijkstra Algorithm

Shortest path routing algorithms, such as Dijkstra's algorithm present an overload problem when used to define routes for ring topologies in networks that implement source routing. This paper presents the effects of Dijkstra's shortest path routing in the simulation and modeling of static source routed networks, in particular we evaluated the effect of this routing scheme in the performance of Optical Burst Switched (OBS) networks. A new static shortest path algorithm is presented and its performance compared with the standard shortest path algorithm, using two new metrics. We propose the use of this routing algorithm in network simulators instead of standard Dijkstra, as it produces more symmetric and balanced routes over the network links, thus producing results that are closer to real networks which implement a more dynamic routing.