Outsourcing the Routing Control Logic: Better Internet Routing Based on SDN Principles

Inter-domain routing is based on a fully decentralized model, where multiple Autonomous Systems (AS) interact via the BGP protocol. Although BGP is the "Glue" of the Internet, it faces a lot of problems regarding its fully distributed nature, policy enforcement capabilities, scalability, security and complexity. Due to the widespread adoption of BGP, only incrementally deployable solutions are feasible. Taking this observation into account, the authors describe a new, backwards-compatible routing model which is based on outsourcing and logically centralizing the routing control plane. They claim that outsourcing enables enhanced inter-domain routing. As multiple ASes outsource their routing control plane to the same outsourcing service contractor, AS clusters are being gradually formed.