A standard XML format for a traffic matrix representation

We have defined an XML format for intra and inter-domain traffic matrices.

• An intra-domain traffic matrix is associated with a domain, and represents the traffic in this domain. For example, the traffic matrix expresses the fact that there is traffic of $X$ Mbps between node $A$ and node $B$ (both nodes $A$ and $B$ belonging to the particular domain, the traffic enters the domain at node $A$ and exits the domain at node $B$ ).
• An inter-domain traffic matrix is also associated with a domain, but traffic is not defined as going from a node $A$ to a node $B$ inside the domain. Traffic is defined as arriving on a specific domain node and coming from a source prefix to a certain destination prefix. These informations are precious for inter-domain traffic engineering. If one wants to map such an inter-domain traffic matrix to the corresponding intra-domain traffic matrix, one already knows the node where the traffic enters, but one has to find the egress node for each destination prefix. It is possible for example to use the C-BGP simulator included in the toolbox.

We have created an XML Schema defining our XML traffic matrix representation format ⁶.

The root element is TrafficMatrixFile which is composed of two elements : info (optional) and either intraTM either interTM (choice, mandatory).

The info element is composed of the following sub-elements : title (string), date (dateTime), duration (double) expressed in minutes, author (string), description (string) and units. The units element is composed of one (and only one) sub-element unit. The unit element has two mandatory attributes : type (which is contrained to be bandwidth) and value which can be bps, kbps, mbps, gbps or tbps.

The intraTM element is composed of a list of src elements and has one mandatory ASID attribute (int). One src element has one mandatory id attribute (string which specifies to which source node the value is related to) and is composed of a list of dst elements. A dst element contains a non-negative float value (the traffic from the source node src to the destination node dst) and has one mandatory id attribute (string which identifies the destination node).

The interTM element is composed of a list of node elements and has one mandatory ASID attribute (int). One node element has one mandatory id attribute (string which identifies the node in the domain) and is composed of a list of src elements. A src element has one mandatory attribute prefix (which identifies the source prefix from where data is coming) and is composed of a list of dst elements. A dst element contains a non-negative float value (the bandwidth from the source prefix src to the destination prefix dst) and has one mandatory attribute prefix (which identifies the destination prefix where data is going to).

Here is an example of the XML TrafficMatricFile element usage (intra-domain traffic matrix) : language=xml, showstringspaces=false

Here is an example of the XML TrafficMatricFile element usage (inter-domain traffic matrix) : language=xml, showstringspaces=false