HPSTOS: High-Performance and Scalable Traffic Optimization Strategy for Mixed Flows in Data Center Networks

Abstract

In data center networks, traffic needs to be distributed among different paths using traffic optimization strategies for mixed flows. Most of the existing strategies consider either distributed or centralized mechanisms to optimize the latency of mice flows or the throughput of elephant flows. However, low network performance and scalability issues are intrinsic limitations of both strategies. In addition, the current elephant flow detection methods are inefficient. In this article, we propose a high-performance and scalable traffic optimization strategy (HPSTOS) based on a hybrid approach that leverages the advantages of both centralized and distributed mechanisms. HPSTOS improves the efficiency of elephant flow detection through sampling and flow-table identification. HPSTOS guarantees preferential transmission of mice flows using priority scheduling and adjusts their transmission rate by coding-based congestion control on the end-host, reducing their latency. Additionally, HPSTOS schedules elephant flows by cost-aware dynamic flow scheduling on a centralized controller to improve their throughput. The controller handles only elephant flows, which constitutes the minority of the flows, allowing effective scalability. Evaluations show that HPSTOS outperforms existing schemes by realizing efficient elephant flow detection and improving network performance and scalability.