Designing a Resilient Virtual Topology in a Multi-Layer Datacenter Interconnection Network

This paper describes a number of approaches to the greenfield design of a logical topology in a multi-layer datacenter interconnection (DCI) network with protection against pre-determined classes of failures. The design of the network is evaluated through a combination of key metrics including, but not limited to, latency, cost, and capacity. An aspect that adds to the complexity of the design process is the requirement to use pure shortest path IP routing instead of Traffic Engineering routing. In this paper we describe the context of this specific design problem and show how we addressed it through a combination of exhaustive search, Artificial Intelligence (AI) and Mathematical Programming (MP) techniques.