Segment Routing: A Game-Changer for Predicting Network Latency
What is Segment Routing (SR)? Segment Routing (SR) is a new way of routing that simplifies traffic engineering by encoding the entire path a packet must take through the network into the packet header. Instead of using traditional per-hop signaling protocols like MPLS-TE (Traffic Engineering) , Segment Routing uses a series of segments – pre-defined instructions like visit a specific node, traverse a specific link or apply a specific service. These segments are represented as SIDs and are processed sequentially by the routers in the path. SR brings scalability as it eliminates the need to maintain complex state information in every router and flexibility to choose the path. This is particularly useful in Software-Defined Networking (SDN) environments where SR can dynamically optimize traffic flows, reduce congestion and latency. By using SR, network operators can achieve traffic steering, better resource utilization and simpler operations while meeting performance requirements. ...