Design of the optical path layer in multiwavelength cross-connectednetworks

We discuss the wavelength requirement for optical networks based on wavelength-division multiplexing (WDM). A mathematical model, to represent the routing and wavelength assignment in optical networks with or without wavelength conversion, is described, and metrics are defined to express the performance. A new heuristic for routing and wavelength assignment is proposed and compared with the Dijkstra algorithm and with a solution based on integer linear programming. The different techniques are applied to a variety of network examples with different traffic loads     

Effects of wavelength routing and selection algorithms onwavelength conversion gain in WDM optical networks

Wavelength-division multiplexing (WDM) technology is emerging as the transmission and switching mechanism for future optical mesh networks. In these networks it is desired that a wavelength can be routed without electrical conversions. Two technologies are possible for this purpose: wavelength selective cross-connects (WSXC) and wavelength interchanging cross-connects (WIXC), which involve wavelength conversion. It is believed that wavelength converters may improve the blocking performance, but there is a mix of results in the literature on the amount of this performance enhancement. We use two metrics to quantify the wavelength conversion gain: the reduction in blocking probability and the increase in maximum utilization, compared to a network without converters. We study the effects of wavelength routing and selection algorithms on these measures for mesh networks. We use the overflow model to analyze the blocking probability for wavelength-selective (WS) mesh networks using the first-fit wavelength assignment algorithm. We propose a dynamic routing and wavelength selection algorithm, the least-loaded routing (LLR) algorithm, which jointly selects the least-loaded route-wavelength pair. In networks both with and without wavelength converters the LLR algorithm achieves much better blocking performance compared to the fixed shortest path routing algorithm. The LLR produces larger wavelength conversion gains; however, these large gains are not realized in sufficiently wide utilization regions and are diminished with the increased number of fibers     

Segment shared protection in WDM networks with partial wavelength conversion

In this paper, we propose a novel approach of survivable routing for segment shared protection (SSP) in mesh wavelength division multiplexing networks with partial wavelength conversion capability, with which spare capacity is allocated dynamically for a given working lightpath. The survivable routing process is formulated into a shortest path searching problem on the transferred graph of cycles (TGC) and wavelength graph of paths (WGP).     

Link-State-Based Algorithms for Dynamic Routing in All-Optical Networks with Ring Topologies

The increased usage of large bandwidth in optical networks raises the problems of efficient routing to allow these networks to deliver fast data transmission with low blocking probabilities. Due to limited optical buffering in optical switches and constraints of high switching speeds, data transmitted over optical networks must be routed without waiting queues along a path from source to destination. Moreover, in optical networks deprived of wavelength converters, it is necessary for each established path to transfer data from source to destination by using only one wavelength. To solve this NP-hard problem, many algorithms have been proposed for dynamic optical routing like Fixed-Paths Least Congested (FPLC) routing or Least Loaded Path Routing (LLR). This paper proposes two heuristic algorithms based on former algorithms to improve network throughput and reduce blocking probabilities of data transmitted in all-optical networks with regard to connection costs. We also introduce new criteria to estimate network congestion and choose better routing paths. Experimental results in ring networks show that both new algorithms achieve promising performance.     

Survivable virtual topology mapping in IP-over-WDM networks using differential evolution optimization

In IP-over-wavelength division multiplexing networks, a virtual topology is placed over the physical topology of the optical network. Given that a simple link failure or a node failure on the physical topology can cause a significant loss of information, an important challenge is to make the routing of the virtual topology on to the physical topology survivable. This problem is known as survivable virtual topology mapping (SVTM) and is known to be an NP-complete problem. So far, this problem has been optimally solved for small instances by the application of integer linear programming and has been sub-optimally solved for more realistic instances by heuristic strategies such as ant colony optimization and genetic algorithms. In this paper, we introduce the application of differential evolution (DE) to solve the SVTM problem and enhancements based on DE are proposed as well. Three algorithms based on DE are developed. The enhanced variants have better convergence rate, get better quality of solutions and require few control parameters. We present the impact of these parameters on the system’s performance improvement. Algorithms are evaluated in different test bench optical networks, as NSFnet and USA, demonstrating that the enhanced DE algorithm overcomes the other two, for small instances. The three algorithms reach a 100  survivable mapping for small instances. The three algorithms also find positive survivable mappings and reduce the network wavelength links. Results show the effectiveness and efficiency of the proposed algorithms.     

A novel survivable routing algorithm for shared segment protection in mesh WDM networks with partial wavelength conversion

In this paper, a survivable routing algorithm is proposed for shared segment protection (SSP), called optimal self-healing loop allocation (OSHLA), which dynamically allocates spare capacity for a given working lightpath in mesh wavelength-division-multiplexing (WDM) networks with partial wavelength conversion capability. Two novel graph transformation approaches, namely graph of cycles and wavelength graph of paths, are introduced to solve this problem, in which the task of survivable routing is formulated as a series of shortest path searching processes. In addition to an analysis on the computation complexity, a suite of experiments is conducted to verify OSHLA on four networks with different topologies and traffic loads. We find that the blocking probability and computation complexity are dominated by the upper bound on the length of the working and protection segments. Comparison is made between OSHLA and four other reported schemes in terms of blocking probability. The results show that OSHLA can achieve the lowest blocking probability under the network environment of interest. We conclude that OSHLA provides a generalized framework of survivable routing for an efficient implementation of SSP in mesh WDM partial wavelength convertible networks. With OSHLA, a compromise is initiated by manipulating the upper bound on the length of working and protection segments such that the best performance-computation complexity gain can be achieved.     

Hybrid protection algorithms based on game theory in multi-domain optical networks

With the network size increasing, the optical backbone is divided into multiple domains and each domain has its own network operator and management policy. At the same time, the failures in optical network may lead to a huge data loss since each wavelength carries a lot of traffic. Therefore, the survivability in multi-domain optical network is very important. However, existing survivable algorithms can achieve only the unilateral optimization for profit of either users or network operators. Then, they cannot well find the double-win optimal solution with considering economic factors for both users and network operators. Thus, in this paper we develop the multi-domain network model with involving multiple Quality of Service (QoS) parameters. After presenting the link evaluation approach based on fuzzy mathematics, we propose the game model to find the optimal solution to maximize the user’s utility, the network operator’s utility, and the joint utility of user and network operator. Since the problem of finding double-win optimal solution is NP-complete, we propose two new hybrid protection algorithms, Intra-domain Sub-path Protection (ISP) algorithm and Inter-domain End-to-end Protection (IEP) algorithm. In ISP and IEP, the hybrid protection means that the intelligent algorithm based on Bacterial Colony Optimization (BCO) and the heuristic algorithm are used to solve the survivability in intra-domain routing and inter-domain routing, respectively. Simulation results show that ISP and IEP have the similar comprehensive utility. In addition, ISP has better resource utilization efficiency, lower blocking probability, and higher network operator’s utility, while IEP has better user’s utility.     

Dynamic Routing and Wavelength Assignment in Survivable WDM Networks

Dense wavelength division multiplexing (DWDM) networks are very attractive candidates for next generation optical Internet and intelligent long-haul core networks. In this paper we consider DWDM networks with wavelength routing switches enabling the dynamic establishment of lightpaths between each pair of nodes. The dynamic routing and wavelength assignment (RWA) problem is studied in multifiber networks, assuming both protection strategies: dedicated and shared. We solve the two subproblems of RWA simultaneously, in a combined way using joint methods for the wavelength selection (WS) and wavelength routing (WR) tasks. For the WS problem in contrast to existing strategies we propose a new, network state based selection method, which tries to route the demand on each wavelength, and selects the best one according to different network metrics (such as available channels, wavelengths per fiber and network load). For the WR problem we propose several weight functions for using in routing algorithms (Dijkstra or Suurballe), adapting dynamically to the load of the links and to the length of the path. The combination of different wavelength selection and routing (WS&WR) methods enables wide configuration opportunities of our proposed algorithm allowing good adaptation to any network state. We also propose the extension of the RWA algorithm for dedicated and shared protection and a new method for applying shared protection in dynamic WDM environment. The detailed analysis of the strategies demonstrate that our RWA algorithm provides significantly better performance than previous methods in terms of blocking probability whether with or without protection methods.     

An Ant-Based Approach for Dynamic RWA in Optical WDM Networks

In this paper, we propose a new ant-based algorithm for the dynamic routing and wavelength assignment (RWA) problem in optical WDM networks under the wavelength continuity constraint. Unlike conventional approaches, which usually require centralized global network information, our new RWA algorithm constructs the routing solution in a distributed manner by means of cooperative ants. To facilitate the ants’ foraging task, we adopt in our algorithm a probabilistic routing table structure for route selection. The new algorithm is highly adaptive in that it always keeps a suitable number of ants in the network to cooperatively explore the network states and continuously update the routing tables, so that the route for a connection request can be determined promptly by the current states of routing tables with only a small setup delay. Some new schemes for path scoring and path searching are also proposed to enhance the performance of our ant-based algorithm. Extensive simulation results upon three typical network topologies indicate that the proposed algorithm has a very good adaptability to traffic variations and it outperforms both the fixed routing algorithm and the promising fixed–alternate routing algorithm in terms of blocking probability. The ability to guarantee both a low blocking probability and a small setup delay makes the new ant-based routing algorithm very attractive for both the optical circuit switching networks and future optical burst switching networks     

Cost Effective Shared Path Protection for WDM Optical Mesh Networks with Partial Wavelength Conversion

In this paper, we study routing and wavelength assignment of connection requests in survivable WDM optical mesh networks employing shared path protection with partial wavelength conversion while 100% restorability is guaranteed against any single failures. We formulate the problem as a linear integer program under a static traffic model. The objective is to minimize the total cost of wavelength-links and wavelength converters used by working paths and protection paths of all connections. A weight factor is used which is defined as the cost ratio of a wavelength converter and a wavelength-link. Depending on the relative cost of bandwidth and wavelength conversion, the optimization objective allows a proper tradeoff between the two. The proposed algorithm, the shortest-widest-path-first (SWPF) algorithm, uses a modified Dijkstra's algorithm to find a working path and a protection path for each connection request in the wavelength graph transformed from the original network topology. When there are multiple candidate paths that have the same minimum total cost, the path along which the maximum number of converters used at each node is minimized is chosen by the SWPF algorithm. We have evaluated the effectiveness of the proposed algorithm via extensive simulation. The results indicate that the performance of the proposed algorithm is very close to that of the optimal solutions obtained by solving the ILP formulation and outperforms existing heuristic algorithms in terms of total number of converters used and the maximum number of converters required at each node in the network. The proposed algorithm also achieves slightly better performance in terms of total cost of wavelength-links and converters used by all connections. We also investigated shared path protection employing converter sharing. The results show that the technique can reduce not only the total number of converters used in the network but also the maximum number of converters required at each node, especially when a large number of converters are needed in the network. In this study, although the ILP formulation is based on static traffic, the proposed algorithm is also applicable to routing dynamic connection requests.     

Survivable routing in IP-over-WDM networks: An efficient and scalable local search algorithm

In IP-over-WDM networks, a logical IP network is routed on top of a physical optical fiber network. An important challenge here is to make the routing survivable. We call a routing survivable if the connectivity of the logical network is guaranteed in the case of a failure in the physical network. In this paper we describe FastSurv, a local search algorithm for survivable routing. The algorithm works in an iterative manner: after each iteration it learns more about the structure of the logical graph and in the next iteration it uses this information to improve its solution. The algorithm can take link capacity constraints into account and can be extended to deal with multiple simultaneous link failures and node failures. In a large series of tests we compare FastSurv with current state-of-the-art algorithms for this problem. We show that it can provide better solutions in much shorter time, and that it is more scalable with respect to the number of nodes, both in terms of solution quality and run time.     

Survivability Approaches Using p-Cycles in WDM Mesh Networks Under Static Traffic

The major challenge in survivable mesh networks is the design of resource allocation algorithms that allocate network resources efficiently while at the same time are able to recover from a failure quickly. This issue is particularly more challenging in optical networks operating under wavelength continuity constraint, where the same wavelength must be assigned on all links in the selected path. This paper proposes two approaches to solve the survivable routing and wavelength assignment RWA problem under static traffic using p-cycles techniques. The first is a non-jointly approach, where the minimum backup capacity against any single span failure is set up first. Then the working lightpaths problem is solved by first generating the most likely candidate routes for each source and destination s-d pair. These candidate routes are then used to formulate the overall problem as an ILP problem. Alternatively, for a more optimum solution, the problem can be solved jointly, where the working routes and the backup p-cycles are jointly formulated as an ILP problem to minimize the total capacity required. Furthermore, only a subset of high merit cycles that are most likely able to protect the proposed working paths is used in the formulation. Reducing the number of candidate cycles in the final formulation plays a significant role in reducing the number of variables required to solve the problem. To reduce the number of candidate cycles in the formulation, a new metric called Route Sensitive Efficiency (RSE) - has been introduced to pre-select a reduced number of high merit cycle candidates. The RSE ranks each cycle based on the number of links of the primary candidate routes that it can protect. The two approaches were tested and their performances were compared.     

On Multicast Routing for Wavelength-Routed WDM Networks with Dynamic Membership

Future broadband networks must support integrated services and offer flexible bandwidth usage. In our previous work in [1], we explored the optical link control (OLC) layer on the top of optical layer that enables the possibility of bandwidth on-demand (BoD) service directly over wavelength division multiplexed (WDM) networks. Today, more and more applications and services such as video-conferencing software and Virtual LAN service require multicast support over the underlying networks. Currently, it is difficult to provide wavelength multicast over optical switches without optical/electronic conversions although the conversion takes extra cost. In this paper, based on the proposed wavelength router architecture (equipped with ATM switches to offer O/E and E/O conversions when necessary), a dynamic multicast routing algorithm is proposed to furnish multicast services over WDM networks. The goal is to join a new group member into the multicast tree so that the cost, including the link cost and the optical/electronic conversion cost, is kept as low as possible. The same algorithm can be applied to other wavelength routing architectures with redefinition of electronic copy cost. The effectiveness of the proposed wavelength router architecture as well as the dynamic multicast algorithm is evaluated by simulation.     

An efficient column generation design method of p-cycle-based protected working capacity envelope

The protected working capacity envelope (PWCE) concept was proposed by Grover (2004) in order to simplify network operations and management in survivable wavelength division multiplexing (WDM) networks. In this paper, we focus on the design of PCWE and investigate a new design method based on column generation (CG) for designing survivable WDM networks based on p-cycle PWCE. Proposed design algorithms for PWCE and p-cycle proceed in two steps: A first step where a large (sometimes huge) number of cycles is enumerated followed by a second step where the selection of the most promising p-cycles is made with the help of combinatorial optimization tools. In this paper, we develop a new (single-step) method based on large scale optimization tools, that is, CG techniques, where the generation of cycles is dynamic and embedded within the optimization process. The key advantage of CG techniques is that no a priori cycle enumeration step is required ahead of the optimization process: The generation of the relevant cycles, only one or few at a time, is embedded in the optimization process. We conducted intensive computational experiments to compare the performances of our CG algorithms with four other algorithms in the literature. The different algorithms were compared with regard to several design metrics and running time. Results obtained in the experiments on five different network instances show that the CG-based algorithm outperforms by far all proposed algorithms in the literature, both with respect to the scalability (much smaller computing times for large network instances) and also with respect to the quality of the solutions.     

A Markov-Based Reservation Algorithm for Wavelength Assignment in All-Optical Networks

Most routing and wavelength assignment algorithms for all-optical networks do not consider the potential problem of reservation connection, which occurs when two or more reservation requests compete for the same wavelength. Confliction can happen even if the network is only lightly loaded. In this paper, we propose a new reservation protocol Markov-based backward reservation (MBR) based on Markov modeling of the network traffic on optical links for resolving wavelength reservation confliction. Our simulations show that this new protocol can improve network performance as measured by decreased blocking probability. The MBR algorithm works best in small-hop-count networks with a comparatively small number of wavelengths per fiber compared to other frequently considered algorithms.     

Routing, wavelength and time-slot-assignment algorithms for wavelength-routed optical WDM/TDM networks

This paper studies the connection-assignment problem for a time-division-multiplexed (TDM) wavelength-routed (WR) optical wavelength-division-multiplexing (WDM) network. In a conventional WR network, an entire wavelength is assigned to a given connection (or session). This can lead to lower channel utilization when individual sessions do not need the entire channel bandwidth. This paper considers a TDM-based approach to reduce this inefficiency, where multiple connections are multiplexed onto each wavelength channel. The resultant network is a TDM-based WR network (TWRN), where the wavelength bandwidth is partitioned into fixed-length time slots organized as a fixed-length frame. Provisioning a connection in such a network involves determining a time-slot assignment, in addition to the route and wavelength. This problem is defined as the routing, wavelength, and time-slot-assignment (RWTA) problem. In this paper, we present a family of RWTA algorithms and study the resulting blocking performance. For routing, we use the existing shortest path routing algorithm with a new link cost function called least resistance weight (LRW) function, which incorporates wavelength-utilization information. For wavelength assignment, we employ the existing least loaded (LL) wavelength selection; and for time-slot allocation, we present the LL time-slot (LLT) algorithm with different variations. Simulation-based analyses are used to compare the proposed TDM architecture to traditional WR networks, both with and without wavelength conversion. The objective is to compare the benefits of TDM and wavelength conversion, relative to WR networks, towards improving performance. The results show that the use of TDM provides substantial gains, especially for multifiber networks.     

光网络选路和波长分配研究

文章在叙述了光网络中选路和波长分配(RWA)要解决的基本问题后,对有关方面的近年研究作了综述,主要包括:虚拓扑重构、业务量疏导的RWA、多播RWA、抗毁网络的RWA.抗毁问题涉及WDM网络的抗毁选路、区分可靠性、网状网的快速恢复、多故障下的抗毁.     

An effective method for blocking performance analysis of WDM all-optical networks

We propose a rational approximation (RA)-based algorithm to perform the blocking analysis of circuit-switched all-optical networks. Our algorithm can be applied to large networks with various topologies and routing and wavelength assignment algorithms. It can be applied to optical networks with either full, sparse, or no wavelength conversion. We also propose fixed-path wavelength assignment algorithms for networks with balanced and unbalanced traffic.     

Dynamic light trail routing in WDM optical networks

Fiber optics have replaced copper as the primary transmission medium. Wavelength Division Multiplexing (WDM) networks effectively increase single-link bandwidth from 10 Mbps to over 160 Gbps, and have been considered as a promising candidate for the next-generation backbone network. All optical circuits each on a separate wavelength called lightpaths represent the first major method for optical communication. The granularity provided between a source and destination node is that of a complete wavelength. Once a lightpath is set up, the entire wavelength is used exclusively by the connection’s source and destination node-pair. No sub-wavelength sharing between nodes along the lightpath is allowed. However, it is often observed that the bandwidth requirement in today’s network is often dynamically varying and does not justify the need for allocating an entire wavelength. Therefore, the wavelength capacity may be underutilized. A new technology termed light trail was proposed to avoid the inability of intermediate nodes to use a connection wavelength, and the constant reconfiguration of switches. In this article, we study dynamic light trail routing in a WDM optical network. We present an efficient algorithm for establishing a light trail routing for a new connection request, while using minimum network resources. We also study survivable network routing using the proposed light trail technology. We present an efficient heuristic for computing a pair of working and protection light trails for a dynamic incoming connection request. Simulation results are presented which demonstrate the advantages of our routing schemes.     

一种新型的动态路由和波长分配算法

本文讨论了WDM光网中，在动态业务流量和有限范围波长变换情况下的动态路由和波长分配（RWA）问题，基于Moone-Dijkstra算法，考虑到动态波长变换的可能和限制，提出了一种新型的、可实现动态最小代价路由和最佳虚波长通道的综合启发式算法（DMC－OVMP）。该算法对路由子问题和波长分配子问题既相互独立，又相互结合，优化了RWA，保证了网络信息传输的安全性。对中国教育和科研计算机网（CERNET）基于本算法进行了计算机仿真，实现了低的网络阻塞率。