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1.1.- Traffic Engineering Process Model

  
Traffic Engineering Process Model is described as the sequence of actions to be performed to optimize the performance of an operational network. The process model comprends four phases that are repeated continually in an iterative process.
Phase I
Defines the relevant control policies that govern the operation of the network. These policies will depend upon the following factors:
  1. Business model.
  2. Network cost structure.
  3. Operating constraints.
  4. Utility model.
  5. Optimization criteria.
  

Phase II
Implements feedback mechanisms involving the acquisition of measurement data from the operational network.
Phase III
Analizes the network state and characterizes traffic workload. Analysis may be proactive and/or reactive. Proactive analysis identifies potential problems that could be manifested in the future. Reactive analysis identifies existing problems, determines their cause through diagnosis, and evaluate alternative approaches to remedy the problems.
Quantitative and qualitative techniques may be used including modeling based analysis and simulation. This phase involves investigating the concentration and distribution of traffic across the network, identifying the characteristic of the offered traffic workload, existing or potential bottleneck, network pathologies such as ineffective link placement, single point of failure, etc. Network pathologies can be caused by inferior network architecture, inferior network design, and configuration problems. A traffic matrix may be constructed as part of the analysis process.
Phase IV
Implements the performance optimization of the network. This includes the use of appropriate techniques to control the offered traffic or to control the distribution of traffic across the network. Actions to be implemented are as follows:
  1. Increasing link capacity and/or adding additional links.
  2. Deploying additional hardware such as switches and routers.
  3. Adjusting routing parameters such as IGP metrics and BGP attributes.
  4. Adjusting traffic management parameters.
  5. Implementing network planning process to improve the network architecture, design, capacity, technology and configuration to accomodate current and future growth.
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