LDLB: Label-Based Dynamic Load Balance Algorithm for Data Center Network

Xiaoyan Qian

doi:10.1109/tcc.2026.3723429

LDLB: Label-Based Dynamic Load Balance Algorithm for Data Center Network

2026-08-12

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DOI：10.1109/tcc.2026.3723429

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Existing switch-based load balance schemes in data center networks face a fundamental dilemma: local strategies respond quickly but cannot detect downstream congestion, while global strategies approximate network-wide views but suffer from information propagation delays. These issues prevent data flows from quickly and accurately bypassing congested links, resulting in prolonged Flow Completion Time (FCT). We propose Label Based Dynamic Load Balance (LDLB), a distributed algorithm that bridges this gap by combining instantaneous local congestion detection with globally synchronized congestion labels. LDLB uses Random Early Detection and Explicit Congestion Notification (RED/ECN) to identify congested egress ports and records them in a local congestion table (LCT). Congested switches proactively generate congestion labels—identifying affected destination IPs—and forward them to upstream neighbors, which cache the labels in a congestion label table (CLT). A compressible information table aggregates contiguous IP addresses to reduce storage and synchronization overhead. Upon packet arrival, each switch consults both the LCT and CLT and applies a Weighted Cost Multi-Path (WCMP)-like cost function to reroute traffic away from congested links. Experiments on ns-3 with four real data center workloads (Web Server, Cache Follower, Web Search, Data Mining) demonstrate that LDLB reduces FCT by 57%, 61%, 65%, 67%, and 54% compared with ECMP, DRILL, LetFlow, HULA, and CONGA, respectively.

Keywords:

Data Center Networks

Routing Algorithm

Load Balance

Congestion Detection

LDLB: Label-Based Dynamic Load Balance Algorithm for Data Center Network

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