Uploaded February 2026 | Updated September 2026, 1 week ago
Abstract
Traditionally, one has had to choose between load balancing (ECMP) and traffic engineering (fine-grained path control of traffic trunks). Also traditionally, TE with bandwidth control generally meant a control plane of RSVP-TE and a data plane of MPLS. Finally, TE is typically used in wide- and metro-area networks.
Multipath Traffic Engineering (MPTE) allows you to have both fine-grained traffic control and hop-by-hop multipathing. It can use a variety of control planes (RSVP-TE, BGP and PCEP) and data planes (MPLS and IP tunnels). It programs optimally weighted load balancing at each hop and minimizes state at each node. Finally, it has applications in WAN, MAN and DCI networks as well as within data center clusters. It appears well-suited for AI network infrastructure in multi-tenant training clusters and in delivering inferencing services. This talk will present arguments supporting these claims.
References:
datatracker.ietf.org/doc/draft-kompella-teas-mpte
datatracker.ietf.org/doc/draft-kbr-teas-mptersvp
datatracker.ietf.org/doc/draft-kompella-rtgwg-mlnwsched
Zhaohui (Jeffrey) Zhang:
Jeffrey (Zhaohui) Zhang is a Sr. Distinguished Technologist in HPE's routing protocols team. He has worked on routing technologies for over 30 years, from traditional unicast/multicast/MPLS protocols/services to modern Segment Routing, Mobile User Plane, and AIML DC technologies.
Jeffrey Zhang is an active IETF participant and he co-chairs the RIFT and BESS WGs in the IETF. He is also a NANOG Program Committee member for the last two years.
nanog.org/events/nanog-96/content/5667
Abstract
Traditionally, one has had to choose between load balancing (ECMP) and traffic engineering (fine-grained path control of traffic trunks). Also traditionally, TE with bandwidth control generally meant a control plane of RSVP-TE and a data plane of MPLS. Finally, TE is typically used in wide- and metro-area networks.
Multipath Traffic Engineering (MPTE) allows you to have both fine-grained traffic control and hop-by-hop multipathing. It can use a variety of control planes (RSVP-TE, BGP and PCEP) and data planes (MPLS and IP tunnels). It programs optimally weighted load balancing at each hop and minimizes state at each node. Finally, it has applications in WAN, MAN and DCI networks as well as within data center clusters. It appears well-suited for AI network infrastructure in multi-tenant training clusters and in delivering inferencing services. This talk will present arguments supporting these claims.
References:
datatracker.ietf.org/doc/draft-kompella-teas-mpte
datatracker.ietf.org/doc/draft-kbr-teas-mptersvp
datatracker.ietf.org/doc/draft-kompella-rtgwg-mlnwsched
Zhaohui (Jeffrey) Zhang:
Jeffrey (Zhaohui) Zhang is a Sr. Distinguished Technologist in HPE's routing protocols team. He has worked on routing technologies for over 30 years, from traditional unicast/multicast/MPLS protocols/services to modern Segment Routing, Mobile User Plane, and AIML DC technologies.
Jeffrey Zhang is an active IETF participant and he co-chairs the RIFT and BESS WGs in the IETF. He is also a NANOG Program Committee member for the last two years.
nanog.org/events/nanog-96/content/5667
