Unleashing SR Traffic Engineering capabilities with SR Flexible Algorithms

Have you ever wished you could tailor IGP computation to fit your own traffic engineering needs? Such as by computing: Paths considering a subset of the routers in …

Have you ever wished you could tailor IGP computation to fit your own traffic engineering needs? Such as by computing: Paths considering a subset of the routers in your network? – a network plane or slice Paths that minimize cumulative delay to a destination based on measured per-link delay? Paths traversing only encrypted MACsec links? Both for primary and pre-computed backup paths Paths traversing only high speed interfaces All the above use cases are now possible. And furthermore, they are possible at scale and based on the source routing paradigm. Meet SR Flexible Algorithms !!! SR Flexible Algorithms (FA) is the latest standards-based tool in the SR TE toolkit. FA allows operators to tailor IGP SPF computation according to their own needs. An operator can define and assign new SR segments (prefix SIDs) to realize forwarding beyond SPF based on link cost. As a result, FA provides a traffic engineered path from anywhere to anywhere automatically computed by the IGP. This presentation provides a technical overview of this new technology and its benefits for network operators, including: Flexibility –operator defines algo Simplicity –single IGP process, and single loopback with multiple SIDs Scalability –single SID (instead of a label stack) can now be used to enforce traffic on the Flex-algo specific path Rich functionality –optimum sub-50msec TI-LFA backup paths respecting the same optimization objective and constraints as the primary path Automation –FA inherits all the scale and automation benefits powered by intent-based networking with on-demand SR policy instantiation and automated traffic steering More importantly, presentation dwells into key use cases that leverage this solution; including: Multi-plane network designs Intent-based network slicing Low latency routing Secured Intelligent Transport Why is this session relevant to NANOG? FA is a new concept with large set of use cases. Thus, we consider that this topic will be of interest for the NANOG audience.