THE SYNCHRONIZATION OF PERIODIC ROUTING MESSAGES

The paper considers a network with many apparently-independent periodi c processes and discusses one method by which these processes can inad vertently become synchronized. In particular, we study the synchroniza tion of periodic routing messages, and offer guidelines on how to avoi d inadvertent synchronization. Using simulations and analysis, we stud y the process of synchronization and show that the transition from uns ynchronized to synchronized traffic is not one of gradual degradation but is instead a very abrupt 'phase transition': in general, the addit ion of a single router will convert a completely unsynchronized traffi c stream into a completely synchronized one. We show that synchronizat ion can be avoided by the addition of randomization to the traffic sou rces and quantify how much randomization is necessary. In addition, we argue that the inadvertent synchronization of periodic processes is l ikely to become an increasing problem in computer networks.