On the overlay network design problem for the soft-label switched paths in Internet protocol networks

In this paper, we tackle the design problem of the network overlay used by the soft-label switched paths (soft-LSPs) in Internet protocol networks. The design problem consists in finding the capacity on each link and the routing metrics that ensure the successful rerouting of the soft-LSPs for all failure scenarios of interest to the network planner. The objective is to minimize the cost of the network overlay. A mixed non-linear mathematical programming model is proposed for the problem. In order to obtain “good” solutions for real-size instances of the problem, we propose a tabu search algorithm. Finally, numerical results are presented and analyzed.