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com

Computer Communications 30 (2007) 3117–3125

www.elsevier.com/locate/comcom

Case studies of network designs with technology considerations

Sami J. Habib *

Kuwait University, Computer Engineering Department, P.O. Box 5969, Safat 13060, Kuwait

Available online 27 June 2007

Abstract

This paper presents three topological case studies that are optimized for a family of network technologies, such as ATM switch, Ether-
net hub and IP Router. The topological studies are carried out by a custom-built evolutionary software tool that automatically selects,
integrates and optimizes network devices into a 3-level network topology. The evolutionary tool searches the discrete design space for
minimal 3-level hierarchy topology cost while satisfying the protocol translation and network performance. The experimental results for
several network designs indicate the effectiveness of the evolutionary tool in finding good network designs with various technologies in
less than 15 min.
Ó 2007 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

Keywords: Network topology; Optimization; Network technology; Design automation; Evolutionary approach

1. Introduction topological design problem is a complicated combinatorial

This paper describes the outcomes of a novel design
automation tool for optimizing network topology. Design
automation (DA) is a field of study, which is focused on
modeling system and developing software programs,
known as a computer-aided design (CAD). For many years
CAD tools are utilized in guiding and helping in the design
of systems, which mainly comprise of integrated circuits
(IC). In this paper, we have conveyed the design automa-
tion’s techniques from the integrated circuits into network
topologies, and such transformation has shown to be the
logical next step for CAD tools. Since the current networks
consist of many integrated network devices in which are
similar to many integrated circuits that consist of many
integrated modules.
The network topology problem is to determine the
topology as well as the choice of the network technologies,
such as ATM, Ethernet, IP router, and gateway, so that all
workstations are enabled to communicate while minimiz-
ing the network installation and operational cost and meet-
ing performance requirements. In general, the network
*
Tel.: +965 498 5667; fax: +965 483 9461.
E-mail address: shabib@eng.kuniv.edu.kw
optimization problem, which is categorized as NP-com-
plete [1]. Therefore, searching for optimal solutions would
require a prohibitive amount of time, since there are liter-
ally millions of possible network topologies for a given net-
work. An automated network design tool has been proven
to search the design space efficiently looking for good net-
work designs [13,14]. However, CAD tool is not intended
to replace the human network designer; instead its objec-
tive is to help or guide the network designer by offering a
fast consideration of many network topologies, rapid feed-
back to the designer as performance is evaluated, rapid,
easy feedback to the designer as design parameters, such
as traffic flow, are varied, rapid adaptation to new network
technologies and design styles, and feedback to the
designer/planner on how to modify existing network
topologies.
Our CAD tool is a custom-built evolutionary software
program that demonstrates the feasibility of automatic net-
work design by selecting, integrating, and optimizing heter-
ogeneous hierarchical networks. An evolutionary approach
offers several advantages over other techniques for a large
design space problem, such as: handling nonlinear
constraints, where some other optimization techniques
such as mixed integer-linear programming can’t, and the
constraints should be linearized first, following a

0140-3664/$ - see front matter Ó 2007 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.
doi:10.1016/j.comcom.2007.05.050
3118 S.J. Habib / Computer Communications 30 (2007) 3117–3125

non-geometric search, which helps avoiding a local minima entire installation, forcing heterogeneous solutions with
or maxima, and adding missing design feature to the pop- devices that vary in technology, cost and performance
ulation through its mutation operator leading to diverse across the network.
population. The experimental results show the effectiveness
of our network model and evolutionary program in finding 2.2. Network application
a wide variety of good network topologies with various
network technologies. A computerized animation production studio is used as
This paper is organized into 6 sections. Section 2 pre- an example of a 3-level network design problem. Such an
sents the network model and an example of application- application has certain network requirements, such as high
specific network. Section 3 presents a survey of related communication bandwidth, high-transfer rate and low
work. Section 4 examines the internal structure of the evo- delay bounds. According to Weinberg [25], digital media
lutionary program. Section 5 presents the experimental production has rapidly become a highly distributed collab-
results for three network designs with different technolo- orative activity involving teams of people and digital
gies. Section 6 contains the conclusion. resources in different locations. A typical animation net-
work consists of four collaborative site tasks: live-action,
2. An overview of the 3-level network model and network audio, background and special effect, and drawing. Ten
application group tasks are divided among the four site tasks as shown
in Fig. 1. For this example, 65 clients (workstations) are
2.1. The 3-level network model divided among the ten group tasks (see Table 1 for exact
clients’ locations). The animation network and other net-
We have modeled a network application as a hierarchy work applications can be described by one matrix and
of 3-level tasks. The top-level task is referred to as the back- one table: client traffic matrix (CTM) and client location
bone task, which spans over a number of physical sites, table (CLT). CTM represents the average client-to-client
each of which performs a site task (second task). A site task traffic requirements, and CLT represents the physical loca-
consists of a number of distinct group tasks (third task), tion of each client within the network.
where each group task comprises a number of distinct cli- In this paper, we have analyzed the effect of different
ents (workstations). These three tasks (backbone, site and network technologies (ATM, Ethernet and IP router) on
group) correspond to the three network levels (backbone the animation network, which consists of 10 local area net-
network, intermediate network, and local area network). works, 4 site networks and 1 backbone network. Thus, we
The group network (local area network, LAN), the lowest have used an evolutionary program to generate three differ-
level of network contains a set of clients (workstations). ent types of designs: ATM network design, Ethernet net-
Clustering the workstations into groups (LANs) and clus- work design,and heterogeneous network design. An ATM
tering groups into sites are assumed to represent the struc- network design consists only of ATM switches, and all
ture of the network application ideally. In order to perform communications between the clients are based on sending
all the collaborative group and site tasks within an accept- and receiving ATM cells over virtual circuits. An Ethernet
able time, all clients need to communicate among them- network design consists only of Ethernet hubs and level-
selves, and share files efficiently.
A network topology can be continually stressed out due
to the data-intensive multimedia applications like comput- Group Group Group
erized animation production. The growth in typical appli- Task 5 Task 1 Task 4
cation size has been exacerbated by the concurrent
growth in the sizes of data sets. The film Toy Story 2 has Group
Task 2 Site Site
122,699 frames of up to 4 gigabytes per frame [23]. This Task 1
Task 2 Group
data reflects the finished film, which means that an enor- Audio Live-Action Task 10
mous quantity of data is created within all production tasks
to develop the finished film. Such an application environ-
Backbone
ment is not only characterized by a massive bandwidth Task
requirement for communications among tasks, but by
requirements that depend on each particular required task, Site
Group Site
the geographical locations of the workstations, and how Task 3 Group
Task 4
Task 3 Background &
well the network devices are integrated. For example, a Special effect
Drawing Task 7
typical animation studio can be divided into a number of
collaborative geographically-distributed tasks, including Group
live-action, audio, background, special-effects, and draw- Group
Task 8 Group
ing, where each task is performed by a number of distinct Task 6
Task 9
workstations. Budget limitations usually disallow the
choice of the fastest possible networking hardware for the Fig. 1. A typical animation network (4 sites and 10 group tasks).
 S.J. Habib / Computer Communications 30 (2007) 3117–3125
Table 1
Client and group tasks cluster information
Site task (ST) Group task (GT) Client task (CT)
1 1 1–5
4 11–15
10 6–10
2 2 16–20
5 21–30
3 3 31–37
8 44–50
9 38–43
4 6 51–57
7 58–65
two bridges, and all communications between the clients
are based on sending and receiving Ethernet frames over
random multiaccess buses.
3. Related work
The automatic network synthesis and analysis problems
are not new. As early as the 1960s, a systematic synthesis
method [2] and realization conditions [17] were developed
to synthesize a communication network from its node
capacity matrix (NCM), where each entry in NCM repre-
sents the maximum possible communication traffic between
two nodes in the network. The outcome is an uncon-
strained physical topology with a minimum weighted sum
of all links’ capacity. This synthesis method gives a non-
unique topology. Sometimes it is impossible to realize a
topology from a non-realizable node capacity matrix. Early
works on network analysis [4,8,10] were performed in the
late 1950s to find the maximum possible flow between
nodes from given a physical network topology and a link
capacity matrix (LCM). The maximum flow analysis is
based on finding the minimum value among all simple
cut-sets.
These early efforts in network synthesis and analysis
have served as a foundation for our problem that consists
of similar basic problems, such as finding a constrained
physical network topology, allocating network capacity
and analyzing network performance. Today, most of the
network design papers are divided into two sets based on
the solution approach, an abstract or concrete.
3.1. Abstract network solution approach
An abstract solution means determining only a set of
links and their capacities without specifying the type of net-
work technology. The following references [11,22,20,15,21]
describe several abstract solution approaches to synthesize
a network topology. In contrast to our problem and
approach, these papers either describe the design of a
logical network topology on top of a pre-existing physical
3119
network topology, limit the number of network levels to
one or two, or use rigid design techniques.
3.2. Concrete network solution approach
We use the term concrete solution to convey that at least
one type of network technology is used to synthesize a net-
work topology. The following papers [12,9,3,7,5,6,
19,26,24,16] describe several concrete solution approaches
to synthesize a network topology. In contrast to our
problem and approach, these papers either describe the
design of a logical network topology on top of a pre-
existing physical network topology, use one specific
network technology, limit the number of network levels
to one or two, or use rigid design techniques.
A paper by researchers from GTE Laboratories [12] pre-
sents a network design model based on a mixed integer/
linear programming formulation that combines the
topological design problem and facility selection problem.
The facility selection problem is to determine the type of
network technology (fiber-optic, T1 carrier, copper, and
microwave) for each link in the topology, where each facil-
ity type is represented by a different link cost function.
Ersoy and Panwar [9] describe a methodology for
designing logical spanning tree topologies to interconnect
LAN/MAN networks, while minimizing the average net-
work delay. Researchers from Bellcore [3] present a SON-
ET Toolkit, which is decision support software to design
robust fiber-optic global networks that protect services
against the consequences of a cable cut (link) or an equip-
ment failure (node). The toolkit produces SONET self-
healing rings on top of the physical network topology.
Elbaum and Sidi [7] describe a methodology based on a
genetic algorithm for finding a minimum-average-delay
topological design of an Ethernet LAN. A Huffman tree
structure is used to represent the entire LAN configuration
chromosome (Ethernet with bridges). An integrated net-
work design tool (INDT) [5,6], from AT&T Bell Labs,
has been constructed to design integrated multimedia net-
works on a variety of network platforms. The network
platforms considered are mesh networks, interconnected
SONET ring networks and hybrid mesh/ring networks.
The INDT consists of a suite of programs, where each pro-
gram is intended for the design of a specific configuration
based on the AT&T network technology.
A group of researchers from Bell Labs [19] presents a
VPN DESIGNER, which is a software tool for designing
a virtual private network (VPN) on top of a service pro-
vider’s infrastructure. This tool is to be used by an Internet
service provider (ISP) to allocate and manage virtual pri-
vate connections to outsourcing enterprises. Youssef, Sait
and Khan [26] describe a simulated evolution algorithm
for a backbone tree topology network. The technique com-
bines local search using simulated annealing to find a
neighboring better solution along with global search using
an evolutionary algorithm to select the next candidates for
replacement.
3120 S.J. Habib / Computer Communications 30 (2007) 3117–3125
Here is a sample of published papers [7,24,16] that have
applied EA to synthesize a concrete network topology, but
the network was constrained to one network technology
(Ethernet or ATM). Also, the decision parameters regard-
ing the selected network technology (such as the number of
devices, bandwidth, number of ports, etc.) were predeter-
mined. Therefore, the goal was to find an abstract topology
to connect the network devices. The authors of these
papers also used a linear string (binary or integer) to for-
mulate their chromosomes. Elbaum and Sidi [7] used a
Huffman encoding (integer string) to represent the LAN
chromosome. In one reference [24], the authors used a bin-
ary string to represent a backbone topology connecting a
number of ATM switches. In another reference [16], the
authors used an integer string to represent a redundant 2-
level Ethernet topology.
4. An overview of the encoded network model and synthesis
tool
4.1. An overview of the encoded network model
The evolutionary program selects, integrates, and opti-
mizes all network devices that can satisfy both design and
performance constraints for each group, site, and back-
bone networks. The templates of these constraints are
embedded within the evolutionary program to insure cor-
rect network designs that satisfy all the design and perfor-
mance requirements. The entire network model is a quite
large; here we highlight some of the core network design
and performance constraints. An example of a design con-
straint, a group connectivity constraint insures that a net-
work device must be selected and has sufficient ports to
connect all the clients within the group.
Another important design constraint is the site-group
interconnection. It insures that a protocol translator (PT)
must be used if two heterogeneous network devices need
to communicate with each other, where one device is resi-
dent at a site task and the other device is resident at a group
task. Also, another interconnection constraint, the back-
bone-site constraint, is encoded to insure that a protocol
translator (PT) will be used if two devices that are different,
a backbone network device and a site network device need
to communicate with each other. A protocol translator is
similar to a 3-level gateway, where all communications
are based on routing IP packets. Fig. 2 illustrates a partial
interconnection tree.
The partial interconnection tree illustrates all possible
interconnection when an ATM device is selected for a
group task (root node). The intermediate nodes represent
all possible network devices for a site to be connected with
a group network device. The leaf nodes represent all possi-
ble network devices for a backbone to be connected with a
site network device. In Fig. 2, the shaded box represents the
protocol translator (PT) to be placed between heteroge-
neous network devices. Therefore, a link with a protocol
translator has two parameters associated with the type of
Group Network ATM
PTA⇔E
ATM Site Network Ethernet Router
PT
PTA⇔E
PTR⇔E
PT
A⇔
R⇔
E
E
ATM Ethernet Router ATM Ethernet Router ATM Ethernet Router
Backbone Network
Fig. 2. A partial interconnection tree.
protocol translator: cost and processing time. The process-
ing time indicates the amount of time to perform the pro-
tocol translation and it is added to the total average
network delay (AND). Also, the cost of a protocol transla-
tor is added to the total network design cost. The full inter-
connection tree is encoded in the evolutionary program,
and also it can easily be updated if any requirements
change or technology evolves.
The performance constraints insure that the capacity
and delay constraints are met. A group capacity constraint,
which insures that the allocated communication bandwidth
is greater than traffic flow within the group, is an example
of a network performance constraint. A delay constraint
insures that the total of average delays of all network
devices is less than or equal to a threshold network delay
(TND) given by the evolutionary program’s user. The
delay constraint is based on a widely used delay model
due to its fast approximation and simplicity [11,1]. As we
improve the capability of the tool, more accurate and com-
plex delay constraints will be prototyped in the tool.
4.2. The network design tool – evolutionary program
The network design tool consists of three main proce-
dures. The first procedure generates an initial population
of the proposed 3-level network topology by selecting
and integrating all network hardware devices randomly.
This procedure runs only one time and insures that all
the initial network designs are valid. The second procedure
evaluates the network design cost, estimates the average
network delay, and validates all design and performance
constraints of the entire population. The third procedure
optimizes some selected topologies in the current popula-
tion. The second and third procedures execute until the
number of generations reaches its limit, then the evolution-
ary program terminates. The reader can refer to [14] for the
complete detail on how we took advantage of the evolu-
tionary approach to solve our network design problem
with technology considerations.
 S.J. Habib / Computer Communications 30 (2007) 3117–3125 3121

The inputs to the evolutionary program are application Table 2

inputs and tool inputs. The application inputs: client loca- Traffic flow for site and group tasks
tion table (CLT), client traffic matrix (CTM) and threshold Task Local Outgoing Incoming
network delay (TND), describe the application tasks. The traffic (Mbps) traffic (Mbps) traffic (Mbps)
CLT and CTM vary from application to application. The Site task 1 15.0 55.625 2.5
threshold network delay (TND) is a real value given by Site task 2 0.0 15.0 21.25
Site task 3 8.4 15.0 33.75
the designer to insure that the average network delay Site task 4 4.2 7.5 35.625
(AND) of a synthesized 3-level network topology never Group task 1 6.0 11.25 7.5
exceeds the TND. Group task 2 2.0 2.5 2.5
The tool inputs are the network device libraries and evo- Group task 3 4.2 12.6 7.35
lutionary approach’s parameters. The network device Group task 4 8.0 48.125 2.5
Group task 5 9.0 12.5 18.75
libraries contain attribute information about all network Group task 6 4.2 7.7 16.625
component types (ATM, Ethernet, router, bridge, T-car- Group task 7 5.6 4.0 23.2
rier, SONET, and virtual private network) such cost, Group task 8 4.2 2.1 20.475
capacity, number of ports, and type of wire. The evolution- Group task 9 1.2 8.7 14.325
ary approach’s parameters refer to the population size Group task 10 6.0 11.25 7.5
(PS), number of generations (NG), crossover rate (CR),
and mutation rate (MR). The output of the prototype net- ter) for the star backbone network. The reader can refer to
work tool is a population of optimized 3-level network another publication [13] for the wide tree backbone topol-
topologies. ogy designs using the other network device libraries, such
as T-carrier, SONET, and VPN.
5. Experimental results In the three experiments, a proportionate selection
scheme [18] was used with the following parameters: popu-
The evolutionary program was implemented in C++ lation size (PS) = 250, number of generations
and runs on a SUN Blade 150 workstation with a single (NG) = 5000, mutation rate (MR) = 0.05, and crossover
CPU. The software required about 14,000 lines of code. rate (CR) = 0.80. The proportionate selection scheme is a
This version of iCAD can integrate a wide range of net- simple selection method, that compares each member’s fit-
work technologies for each network level in the network ness function with the average fitness function of the entire
design problem. The lowest network design cost, which sat- population. In our formulation, the fitness function repre-
isfied the threshold network delay (TND), found by the sents the total network cost including the costs of all net-
evolutionary approach is considered as the recommended work devices, protocol translators, and wiring. If a
solution to the problem. Here we presented the results member’s fitness function is less than or equal to the aver-
for three experiments. In the three experiments, we used age fitness function of the entire population, then this
the animation production studio as our example (as shown member is kept for the next generation. Otherwise, the
in Fig. 1), which includes four site tasks, ten group tasks member is selected for optimization. The convergence crite-
and 65 client tasks. Table 1 provides the clustering infor- rion used in our experiments is to terminate the iCAD
mation about the client and group tasks. This table is a when the number of generations reaches the limit specified.
summary of the client location table (CLT). In the next three subsections, we present the designs gen-
The traffic flow is summarized by three parameters for erated by iCAD for three different types of designs: ATM
each task: local traffic, outgoing traffic and incoming network, Ethernet network, and Heterogeneous network.
traffic, all of which are calculated from the client traffic All these designs are based on the animation network,
matrix (CTM). The local traffic represents all the traffic which consists of 10 local area networks, 4 site networks
flow within a task. The outgoing traffic represents all the and 1 backbone network.
traffic flow from a task to all other tasks. The incoming traf-
fic represents all the traffic flow coming into a task from all 5.1. Experiment 1: synthesizing a 3-level network using only
other tasks. Table 2 shows traffic flow given for the exper- an ATM switch technology
iments and it is measured in megabits per second (Mbps).
The traffic flow within the backbone task can be summa- In this experiment, iCAD synthesizes a 3-level network
rized by one parameter (backbone local traffic, BLT) or site using only ATM switches to enable all clients to communi-
traffic matrix (STM) depending on which topology is cate among themselves within a delay bound. Table 3 sum-
selected. For a local star topology, the backbone local traf- marizes 70 runs by iCAD, where each row reflects an
fic (BLT = 93.125 Mbps) represents all the traffic flow average of ten runs. The time is measured by iCAD using
between all sites. Otherwise for a wide tree topology, the the C++ library function, clock(). This function returns
traffic flow between site to site is computed also from the processor time (in seconds) used by the program since
CTM. Here, we limit our experiments to a local star back- the beginning of execution.
bone topology. Thus, iCAD can select a device among the We ran iCAD with seven different input values of thresh-
three network device libraries (ATM, Ethernet, or IP rou- old network delay (TND): 5, 10, 20, 30, 40, 50, and 60 s (as
3122 S.J. Habib / Computer Communications 30 (2007) 3117–3125

shown in the first column). The second column, Initial Live-Action Task (ST1)
Time, represents the measured time to perform all the ini-
tial ATM network designs. The third column, Search Time, ATM switch
100Mbps
indicates the time that took iCAD to optimize 3-level ATM 5 ports
networks for 5000 generations. The fourth column, Design $2500
Cost, represents the lowest ATM network design found by CT1 CT6
iCAD. The fifth column, AND, indicates the average net-
work delay estimated by iCAD of the lowest ATM network CT2 CT7
ATM switch ATM switch
design. The last column, HF, indicates the network homo- CT3 75Mbps 45Mbps
CT8
geneity factor, which is an output parameter of iCAD rang- 10 ports 10 ports
$2500 $2000
ing (0.0,1.0]. HF = 1.0 indicates that all the selected CT4 CT9
network devices are based on the same technology. Other- GT1 GT10
CT5 CT10
wise, HF indicates the ratio of the maximum number of

ATM switch
75Mbps
10 ports
$2500
selected network devices of the same technology to the

total selected network devices in the 3-level network. In this
experiment, all the outcomes of HF are equal to one since
all the generated network designs are based on the usage of
a single technology, ATM.
As shown in Table 3, the results reflect very practical
design situations. When the value of threshold network
delay (TND) became tight from 60 to 5 s (first column),
the network design cost (fourth column) increased by sev-
eral magnitudes from $39,035.00 to $218,111.00. The initial
time (second column) increased as we decreased TND due
to the rigid constraint of satisfying the average network
delay (AND) to a smaller TND. We noticed an inferior
design generated by iCAD when TND is assigned to 60 s.
Fig. 3 illustrates a partial ATM network design covering
site 1 (live-action as shown in Fig. 1) generated by iCAD.
The partial network shows four ATM switches connecting
15 clients within 3 group tasks (1, 4, and 10) without any
protocol translator. The cost of the partial ATM network
design is $9,500.00 and average network delay
(AND) = 8.02 s. These selected ATM devices satisfied both
the capacity and port constraints.
5.2. Experiment 2: synthesizing a 3-level network using only
an Ethernet technology
In this experiment, iCAD synthesizes a 3-level network
using only Ethernet hubs with level-two bridges to enable
all clients to communicate among themselves within a delay
bound. Table 4 summarizes 70 runs by iCAD, where each
row reflects an average of ten runs.
We ran iCAD with seven different input values of thresh-
old network delay (TND): 5, 10, 20, 30, 40, 50, and 60 s (as
GT4
ST: site task
GT: group task
CT: client task
CT11 CT12 CT13 CT14 CT15
Fig. 3. Partial ATM network for Site 1.
shown in the first column). The second column, Initial
Time, represents the measured times to perform all the ini-
tial Ethernet network designs. The third column, Search
Time, indicates the time that took iCAD to optimize 3-level
Ethernet networks for 5000 generations. The fourth col-
umn, Design Cost, represents the lowest Ethernet network
design found by iCAD. The fifth column, AND, indicates
the average network delay estimated by iCAD of the lowest
Ethernet network design. The last column, HF, indicates
the network homogeneity factor, which is an output param-
eter of iCAD ranging (0.0,1.0]. In this experiment, all the
outcomes of HF are equal to one since all the generated
network designs are based on the usage of a single technol-
ogy, Ethernet. As shown in Table 4, the results again reflect
very practical design situations. When the value of thresh-
old network delay (TND) became tight from 60 to 5 s (first
column), the network design cost (fourth column)
increased by several magnitudes from $17,676.00 to
$76,270.00. The initial time (second column) increased as
we decreased TND due to the rigid constraint of satisfying
the average network delay (AND) to a smaller TND.
Fig. 4 illustrates a partial Ethernet network design cov-
ering site 1 (live-action as shown in Fig. 1) generated by
iCAD. The partial network shows four Ethernet hubs with

Table 3 Table 4
ATM network designs generated by iCAD Ethernet network designs generated by iCAD
TND Initial time Search time Design cost AND HF TND Initial time Search time Design cost AND HF
60.0 1.80 174.33 $39,035.00 59.54 1 60.0 3.08 317.09 $17,676.00 59.87 1
50.0 1.79 173.28 $37,577.00 47.46 1 50.0 3.08 319.63 $22,858.00 19.62 1
40.0 1.81 173.86 $38,327.00 28.45 1 40.0 3.08 319.26 $23,166.00 19.33 1
30.0 1.83 174.35 $38,327.00 26.26 1 30.0 3.08 319.40 $23,166.00 19.33 1
20.0 2.24 176.98 $46,827.00 19.10 1 20.0 5.68 320.87 $23,001.00 19.81 1
10.0 2.53 181.31 $73,585.00 9.96 1 10.0 5.70 361.44 $38,442.00 9.76 1
5.0 4.41 195.44 $218,111.00 4.99 1 5.0 40.59 828.25 $76,270.00 4.89 1
 S.J. Habib / Computer Communications 30 (2007) 3117–3125 3123

three level-2 bridges connecting 15 clients within 3 group Table 5

tasks (1, 4, and 10). The cost of the partial Ethernet net- Heterogeneous network designs generated by iCAD
work design is $1,592.50 and average network delay TND Initial time Search time Design cost AND HF
(AND) = 5.64 s. In this design, iCAD was able to fully uti- 60.0 2.11 205.45 $21,511.00 33.14 0.73
lize the port connections within the selected Ethernet hubs, 50.0 2.12 210.57 $20,630.00 19.71 0.60
where in the ATM design there were several ports not uti- 40.0 2.12 227.77 $19,211.00 20.37 0.87
30.0 2.17 214.79 $20,076.00 16.65 0.73
lized. From a design cost point-of-view, selecting Ethernet 20.0 2.95 212.45 $21,036.00 14.36 0.66
is very attractive; however, the bridges which are needed to 10.0 3.20 204.82 $23,006.00 8.90 0.73
connect Ethernet hubs, add more delays. 5.0 4.05 203.40 $51,061.00 4.99 0.60

5.3. Experiment 3: synthesizing a 3-level network using

lowest heterogeneous network design found by iCAD.
heterogeneous network technologies
The fifth column, AND, indicates the average network
delay estimated by iCAD of the lowest heterogeneous net-
In this experiment, iCAD synthesizes a 3-level network
work design. The last column, HF, indicates the network
using three network technologies (ATM, Ethernet, and IP
homogeneity factor, which is an output parameter of iCAD
router) to enable all clients to communicate among them-
ranging (0.0,1.0].
selves within a delay bound. The encoded interconnection
As shown in Table 5, the results again reflect very prac-
tree is used by iCAD to handle the heterogeneity of the net-
tical design situations. When the value of threshold net-
work devices. The IP router is limited only to the backbone
work delay (TND) became tight from 60 to 5 s (first
and site networks, where ATM and Ethernet can be used at
column), the network design cost (fourth column)
all 3 levels. Table 5 summarizes the results 70 runs by
increased by several magnitudes from $21,511.00 to
iCAD, where each row reflects an average of ten.
$51,061.00. The initial time (second column) increased as
We ran iCAD with seven different input values of
we decreased TND due to the rigid constraint of satisfying
threshold network delay (TND): 5, 10, 20, 30, 40, 50, and
the average network delay (AND) to a smaller TND. We
60 s (as shown in the first column). The second column, Ini-
noticed several inferior designs generated by iCAD when
tial Time, represents the measured times to perform the
TND is assigned to 60 and 50 s.
entire initial heterogeneous network designs. The third col-
Fig. 5 illustrates a partial heterogeneous network design
umn, Search Time, indicates the time that took iCAD to
covering site 1 (live-action as shown in Fig. 1). The partial
optimize 3-level heterogeneous networks for 5000 genera-
network shows three Ethernet Hubs and one IP router con-
tions. The fourth column, Design Cost, represents the
necting 15 clients within 3 group tasks (1, 4, and 10). The
cost of the partial heterogeneous network design is
Live-Action Task (ST1) $2,150.00 and average network delay (AND) = 2.59 s.
Ethernet hub Even though this heterogeneous network design is little
100Mbps
6 ports
more expensive than the Ethernet network design
$300

Live-Action Task (ST1)

2-port Bridge 2-port Bridge
100Kfps IP Router
110Kfps
100Kpps
$135 $165 5 ports
CT1 CT6 $1250
CT2 CT7 CT1 CT6
Ethernet hub Ethernet hub
100Mbps 100Mbps
CT3 CT8 CT2 CT7
6 ports 6 ports Ethernet Ethernet
$300 2-port Bridge $300
CT4 CT9 100Mbps 100Mbps
CT8
60Kfps CT3 6 ports 6 ports
GT1 $92.5 GT10
CT5 CT10 $300 $300
CT4 CT9
GT1 GT10
CT5 CT10
100Mbps
Ethernet
Ethernet hub

6 ports

GT4
$300
100Mbps

ST: site task

6 ports

GT4
$300

GT: group task ST: site task

CT: client task GT: group task
CT: client task

CT11 CT12 CT13 CT14 CT15 CT11 CT12 CT13 CT14 CT15

Fig. 4. Partial Ethernet network for Site 1. Fig. 5. Partial heterogeneous network for Site 1.
3124
$250.000
$200.000
Network Design Cost, $
$150.000
$100.000
$50.000
$0
5 10 20
Threshold Network Delay, Seconds
Fig. 6. Three network studies – design cost versus delay.
($1,592.50), but it has a two times better performance
(2.59 s) than Ethernet network performance (5.64 s). The
reason is that the heterogeneous network took advantage
of the IP router which provides a built-in a protocol trans-
lator. Therefore, an IP router does not adds any extra delay
or cost beyond its processing delay and cost. Therefore, all
the designs generated by iCAD for heterogeneous networks
are dominated (see Table 5 – last column, HF) by Ethernet
technology at the group tasks and router technology at the
site and backbone tasks.
5.4. Overall designs comparison
The relationship between the network design cost and
threshold network delay (TND) can be shown in Fig. 6.
The three bars represent the design trade-off between the
ATM technology, Ethernet technology and heterogeneous
network technology respectively. Each bar consists of
seven points representing seven network designs with
TND set to 5, 10.0, 20.0, 30.0, 40.0, 50.0, and 60.0 s, respec-
tively. Each point represents an average of ten runs. The
network design cost is reduced in all technologies:
1. The ATM network cost went from $218,111.00 to
$39,035.00 (82% reduction) when the threshold network
delay (TND) increases from 5.0 s to 60.0 s.
2. The Ethernet network cost went from $76,270.00 to
$17,676.00 (77% reduction) when TND increases from
5.0 s to 60.0 s. In this case, iCAD found the lowest
design cost when TND = 60.0 s.
3. The Heterogeneous network cost went from $51,061.00
to $21,511.00 (58% reduction) when TND increases
from 5.0 s to 60.0 s. In this case when TND = 5.0 s,
iCAD found the lowest design cost. But the overall low-
est design cost found by iCAD is when TND = 40.0 s.
In general, the design trade-off curves that are produced
by iCAD have followed the classical relation between
S.J. Habib / Computer Communications 30 (2007) 3117–3125
design and performance. However, iCAD was unable to
ATM Technology
provide more optimizations between threshold network
Ethernet Technology
Heterogeneous Technology
delay (TND) = 30.0–60.0 s where most of the optimiza-
tions have occurred between TND = 5.0–30.0 s.
This behavior is due to the nature of the design space,
which is a discrete because of the network device libraries
that we have used. For this paper, we attached iCAD to
four network device libraries ATM, Ethernet, IP router,
and bridges. All libraries consist of 48 devices, except for
the bridge library, that consists of 25 devices. The network
device’s bandwidth choices consist of discrete values, for
example an Ethernet technology offers only three band-
width values: 10, 100, and 1000 Mbps. Also, the network
device’s port consists of discrete values, for example an
ATM technology offers a switch with 5, 10, 15, 20, 25,
30 40 50 60
and 30 port connections.
On one hand, the design and performance requirements
are continuous, but the features of network devices are dis-
crete. This creates a discrete design space that gave no more
improvement beyond TND = 30.0 s. This is one of the
research areas that we will analyze and develop techniques
to reduce the gap between the design and performance
requirements and the features of network devices.
6. Conclusion
We present three network design studies, which are gen-
erated by a research test-bed tool called iCAD. iCAD is a
suite of software programs that synthesize and optimize
network design and data management system. In this
paper, we describe our experience with one of the software
programs that can automatically synthesize and optimize a
number of network technologies, satisfying all design and
performance constraints and at the same time minimizing
the overall network design cost.
The current iCAD program demonstrates that it is pos-
sible to automate a hierarchical network topological design
along with network technology selection in short time. The
heterogeneous network design has been proven to be more
cost effective than the single network technology design,
such as ATM or Ethernet. Also, the legacy problem with
a heterogeneous network design will be less complicated
to migrate to new network technology.
With our positive experience with iCAD and the matu-
rity of the design automation techniques, we believe that
achieving a full-fledged network automation tool is possi-
ble. For the full-fledged automation network design tool,
we need to consider more accurate and complex network
design and performance models. We continue to improve
iCAD in this direction.
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Sami J. Habib received the B.S. degree in com-
puter engineering from Iowa State University,
Ames, Iowa, USA in 1993. After graduation, he
spent a year working as a Lab Engineer in the
Department of Electrical and Computer Engi-
neering at Kuwait University, Kuwait. Then, he
pursed a graduate study at the University of
Southern California, Los Angeles, CA, USA
where he earned the M.S. and Ph.D. degrees in
computer engineering in 1995 and 2001, respec-
tively. He then joined the Department of Com-
puter Engineering at Kuwait University where he is currently an assistant
professor. His current work focuses on developing computer aided design
methodologies and performance analysis techniques for designing/rede-
signing distributed systems, especially the network topology and data
management system. During the academic year 2003/2004, he spent it as a
visiting research professor at the University of Southern California. Dr.
Habib has served on the technical program committee and publicity
committee of the International Symposium on Performance Evaluation of
Computer and Telecommunication Systems (SPECTS). He has served as a
reviewer for a number of international conferences and journals. He has
published 15 journal and conference papers. He is a Member of the IEEE,
IEEE Computer Society, ACM, and Society of Computer Simulation.