In today's networks, fail-safety is becoming increasingly important. An important factor to strengthen this reliability are the so-called ECMP (Equal Cost Multi Path) paths. There are ECMP paths between different routers on the Internet, which allow the destination to still be reached in the event of a failure.

However, ECMP paths also entail a higher level of complexity. This makes detection and troubleshooting more difficult.

The path tracing technology, which is currently still a draft at the Internet Engineering Task Force, is intended to detect these ECMP paths and simplify their management. With the help of path tracing, a provider can recognise whether a packet follows the ECMP path or whether they drift off this path. Path tracing uses highly compressed packets to avoid creating a large network load.

The INS is working with CISCO to develop this technology and build an ecosystem. Current projects at the INS are the implementation of this technology in Vector Packet Processing (a virtual dataplane) and the development of a Control Plane application. The INS is supported by a research grant from CISCO.