Capacity performance of dynamic provisioning in optical networks

This paper describes an architecture and analyzes the performance of dynamic provisioning of lightpaths in an optical network. In dynamic provisioning, a lightpath is set up in real-time without rearranging the working and protection routes of existing lightpaths, and without the knowledge of future lightpath provisioning events. This paper develops a general model of the physical topology of the optical network, and outlines routing approaches for dynamic provisioning of lightpaths. It analyzes via simulations the performance of dynamically provisioned unprotected, 1+1 protected and mesh-restored lightpaths. The analysis of the efficiency of network utilization of dynamic provisioning focuses on the spare capacity needed for protection, and in particular focuses on the impact of sharing of wavelength channels for mesh-restored lightpaths. The main conclusion from the performance studies is that significant capacity gains are achieved with sharing of wavelength-channels for mesh-restored lightpaths with dynamic provisioning even for sparse topologies, and even at moderate loads     

Lightpath Establishment Without Wavelength Conversion Based on Aggressive Rank Accounting in Multi-Domain WDM Networks

In multi-domain WDM networks, in order to establish inter-domain lightpaths across multiple domains without wavelength conversion, a lightpath establishment method based on rank accounting has previously been proposed. With the method, the inter-domain lightpaths are established with small blocking probability based on ranking databases for wavelengths; however, the performance of the method deteriorates when the ranking databases are not frequently updated. In this paper, we propose a lightpath establishment method based on aggressive rank accounting so that ranking databases are updated frequently. In the proposed method, border-node information is used in addition to wavelength usage information, and ranking databases for multiple nodes are updated simultaneously every time a lightpath establishment is processed. From the border-node information, accuracies of the wavelength usage information for each node are computed, and then the ranking database for each node is updated with the wavelength usage information and the computed accuracies. With the updated ranking database, each source node establishes an inter-domain lightpath without wavelength conversion to its destination node across multiple domains. We also present two implementations of the proposed method toward its practical use based on RSVP-TE signaling. We evaluate by simulation the performance of the proposed method, and we show that the proposed method provides smaller blocking probability than the conservative, conventional method when inter-domain lightpaths are not frequently established. We also show that the proposed method still provides smaller blocking probability even if routes of the inter-domain lightpaths change. Finally, we show that the performance of the proposed method is insensitive to the two implementations.     

From network design to dynamic provisioning and restoration inoptical cross-connect mesh networks: an architectural and algorithmicoverview

This article presents a broad overview of the architectural and algorithmic aspects involved in deploying an optical cross-connect mesh network, starting from the network design and capacity planning phase to the real-time network operation phase involving dynamic provisioning and restoration of lightpaths and online algorithms for route computation. Frameworks for offline design and capacity planning of optical networks based on projected future lightpath demands are discussed. The essential components of an IP-centric control architecture for dynamic provisioning and restoration of lightpaths in optical networks are outlined. These include neighbor discovery, topology discovery, route computation, lightpath establishment, and lightpath restoration. Online algorithms for route computation of unprotected, 1+1 protected and mesh-restored lightpaths are discussed in both the centralized and distributed scenarios     

Routing scalability in multi-domain DWDM networks

This paper studies routing scalability in multi-domain DWDM networks. Although inter-domain provisioning has been well studied for packet/cell-switching networks, the wavelength dimension (along with wavelength conversion) poses many challenges in multi-domain DWDM settings. To address these concerns a detailed GMPLS-based hierarchical routing framework is proposed for multi-domain DWDM networks with wavelength conversion. This solution uses mesh topology abstraction schemes to hide domain-internal state. However related inter-domain routing loads can be significant here, growing by the square of the number of border nodes. To address these scalability limitations, improved inter-domain routing update strategies are also proposed and the associated performance of inter-domain lightpath RWA and signaling schemes studied.

Comprehensive design methodology for control and data planes in wavelength-routed optical networks

We propose a comprehensive design methodology for control and data planes of wavelength-routed optical networks (WRONs) employing mixed-line-rate (MLR) transmission for cost-effective resource provisioning. The proposed approach attempts to minimize the maximum lightpath capacity demand in Gbps (representing the measure of lightpath congestion) in network for a given traffic matrix by using a mix of a heuristic scheme and linear programming (LP). In the first step of the proposed three-step design, some lightpaths are set up on a set of judiciously selected fiber links (with point-to-point lightpaths between neighboring nodes), on a specific wavelength throughout the network, and an appropriate fraction of the same set of lightpaths is utilized for carrying control information, forming therefore the control plane (CP) of the WRON. The remaining bandwidth of these lightpaths is utilized to carry the data traffic along with all other designed lightpaths of the WRON using appropriate algorithm, forming the overall data plane (DP) of the WRON. In the second step, traffic routing is carried out through LP to minimize lightpath congestion in the network. In the third step, we utilize the results of LP to assign rates to lightpaths, such that the cost (considering only the transceiver cost) of the network is minimized. This design leads to congestion-aware MLR network with due consideration to cost-effectiveness without compromising the network restoration response against link failures. We carry out simulation studies employing possible CPs using both symmetric (CP topology being same as the physical topology) as well as asymmetric (using fewer fiber links than the symmetric case) topology. The results of our simulations indicate that the proposed design of CP with symmetric/asymmetric topology and in-band transmission with sub-lightpath capacity can bring down network congestion and cost with respect to symmetric out-of-band transmission (using fully reserved lightpaths for CP), without any perceptible sacrifice in respect of the network restoration time. Failure can occur either in CP or DP, or in both the planes. We investigate the effect of design of CP with symmetric/asymmetric topology on network restoration time for single- and double-link failures. We further present DP design methodology with hybrid restoration scheme, i.e., combination of dedicated (1:1) path protection and path restoration. We analyze the effect of symmetric CP topology and degree of protection on the congestion of the network. Some lightpaths, that support more traffic, are protected against failures, while the others are left for path restoration in the event of failures. As more lightpaths are protected, the congestion and power consumption of network increase. We provide an analysis of the factors that come into play while altering the degree of protection and observe how the choice for the degree of protection in DP can be arrived at using an appropriate design methodology.     

An adaptive inter-domain PCE framework to improve resource utilization and reduce inter-domain signaling

Upcoming broadband commercial and scientific applications are now demanding high bandwidth pipes across multiple domains with guaranteed Quality of Service (QoS). Recent research initiatives such as the Path Computation Element (PCE) framework are focusing on the development of scalable multi-domain QoS provisioning frameworks, especially within the emerging carrier grade transport technologies based on layer-2 tunnels. QoS provisioning across multiple domains requires that QoS parameters for available transit paths inside a domain be advertised in the inter-domain routing algorithms, while the dynamic inter- and intra-domain connections vary the available resource, and hence require frequent inter-domain updates. The signaling load on the other hand hampers the scalability of the inter-domain routing mechanisms. We propose the use of an adaptive partitioning framework, which can effectively use network resources and at the same time stabilize the advertised domain topologies and thus path advertisements. Our method partitions network resources by pre-reserving resources for inter-domain transit traffic, and uses policies to modify the resource partitioning in order to maintain the available transit capacity between specified bounds. We show by simulations that the proposed mechanism can reduce inter-domain signaling load by 10%-20% and reduce overall blocking inside a domain by creating a trade-off between available resources for intra-domain connections and inter-domain transit connections. The reduction in inter-domain signaling and blocking can be used as a building block to design scalable QoS routing systems for carrier grade transport networks.     

Post‐Disaster least loaded lightpath routing in elastic optical networks

Disaster events directly affect the physical topology of core networks and may lead to simultaneous failure of multiple lightpaths leading to massive service outages for network operators. To recover from such a failure scenario, the existing routing algorithms running on network nodes (routers or switches) typically attempt to reestablish the connections over new routes with shortest distances and hop count approach. However, this approach may result in congestion on some links, while other links may have the unutilized capacity. Hence, intelligent lightpath computing techniques are required to efficiently route network traffic over the new routes by considering traffic load of each link in addition to distance and hop count to minimize network congestion. In this paper, we have proposed a capacity‐constrained maximally spatial disjoint lightpath algorithm to tackle the provisioning and restoration of disrupted lightpaths in a postdisaster scenario in the context of elastic optical networking. This algorithm computes an alternate least loaded lightpath for disrupted primary lightpath using capacity‐constrained shortest lightpath. Alternate lightpath selection is based on a criteria parameter for a lightpath to be least loaded and constrained by either the length or the spatial distance between primary and alternate lightpaths. The spatial distance between lightpaths enables to reestablish the disrupted connection request away from disaster proximity. The performance of the proposed algorithm is evaluated through simulation for several parameters like blocking probability, network utilization, connection success rates, and minimum spatial distance.     

Optimal virtual topologies for one-to-many communication in WDM paths and rings

In this paper we examine the problem of constructing optimal virtual topologies for one-to-many communication in optical networks employing wavelength-division multiplexing. A virtual topology is a collection of optical lightpaths embedded in a physical topology. A packet sent from the source node travels over one or more lightpaths en route to its destination. Within a lightpath, transmission is entirely optical. At the terminus of a lightpath the data is converted into the electronic domain where it may be retransmitted on another lightpath toward its destination. Since the conversion of the packet from the optical to the electronic domain introduces delays and uses limited physical resources, one important objective is to find virtual topologies which minimize either the maximum or average number of lightpaths used from the source to all destination nodes. Although this problem is NP-complete in general, we show that minimizing the maximum or average number of lightpaths in path and ring topologies can be solved optimally by efficient algorithms.     

Optical resources provisioning: multipoint‐to‐point lightpaths mapping in all‐optical networks

In wavelength‐division multiplexing (WDM) optical networks, the bandwidth request of a traffic stream can be much lower than the capacity of a lightpath. Efficiently grooming low‐speed connections onto high‐capacity lightpaths will improve the network throughput and reduce the network cost. In this paper, we propose and evaluate a new concept of traffic aggregation in WDM mesh networks that aims to eliminate both the bandwidth under‐utilization and scalability concerns that are typical in all‐optical wavelength routed networks. This approach relies on the multipoint‐to‐point lightpath concept. In order to assess the efficiency of our proposal, all underlying network costs are compared. To achieve this aim, we devise a new provisioning algorithm to map the multipoint‐to‐point lightpaths in the network. Our results show that the proposed aggregation technique can significantly improve the network throughput while reducing its cost. Copyright © 2005 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Hierarchical routing and traffic grooming in IP/MPLS-based ASON/GMPLS multi-domain networks

Routing, connection setup, and path computation are well-known problems in multi-domain networks, which have been largely analyzed in pure IP (packet) networks. In circuit-switched optical multi-domain networks, there remain, however, a number of routing and path computation challenges. Traffic grooming means combining a number of low-speed traffic streams so that the high capacity of each lightpath may be used as efficiently as possible, as path computation implements the core of the grooming function, it is obvious that solutions for the traffic grooming problem in optical multi-domain networks are still not sufficiently investigated. In this study we propose a methodology to address the problems of routing, connection setup, and traffic grooming in optical multi-domain networks, which adapts a two-level hierarchical routing scheme and full-mesh topology abstraction algorithm to improve routing scalability and lower inter-domain blocking probabilities; additionally our proposed methodology adapts a scheme for traffic grooming in DWDM multi-domain networks to improve the resources usage. To test our proposed methodology we propose a detailed IP/MPLS-based ASON/GMPLS multi-domain multilayer test framework.     

Physical layer performance benchmarking of two metropolitan area network configurations

This paper investigates the problem of dynamic survivable lightpath provisioning against single-node/link failures in optical mesh networks employing wavelength-division multiplexing (WDM).We unify various forms of segment protection into generalized segment protection (GSP). In GSP, the working path of a lightpath is divided into multiple overlapping working segments, each of which is protected by a node-/link-disjoint backup segment. We design an efficient heuristic which, upon the arrival of a lightpath request, dynamically divides a judiciously selected working path into multiple overlapping working segments and computes a backup segment for each working segment while accommodating backup sharing. Compared to the widely considered shared-path protection scheme, GSP achieves much lower blocking probability and shorter protection-switching time for a small sacrifice in control and management overhead.On the basis of generalized segment protection, we present a new approach to provisioning lightpath requests according to their differentiated quality-of-protection (QoP) requirements. We focus on one of the most important QoP parameters—namely, protection-switching time—since lightpath requests may have differentiated protection-switching-time requirements. For example, lightpaths carrying voice traffic may require 50 ms protection-switching time while lightpaths carrying data traffic may have a wide range of protection-switching-time requirements. Numerical results show that our approach achieves significant performance gain which leads to a remarkable reduction in blocking probability.While our focus is on the optical WDM network, the basic ideas of our approaches can be applied to multi-protocol label switching (MPLS) networks with appropriate adjustments, e.g., differentiated bandwidth granularities.     

Reconfiguration of Logical Topologies with Minimum Traffic Disruptions in Reliable WDM-Based Mesh Networks

A wavelength division multiplexing (WDM) network offers a flexible networking infrastructure by assigning the route and wavelength of lightpaths. We can construct an optimal logical topology, by properly setting up the lightpaths. Furthermore, setting up a backup lightpath for each lightpath improves network reliability. When traffic demand changes, a new optimal (or sub-optimal) topology should be obtained by again applying the formulation. Then, we can reconfigure the running topology to the logical topology obtained. However, during this reconfiguration, traffic loss may occur due to the deletion of older lightpaths. In this paper, we consider reconfiguring the logical topology in reliable WDM-based mesh networks, and we propose five procedures that can be used to reconfigure a running lightpath to a new one. Applying the procedures one by one produces a new logical topology. The procedures mainly focus on utilizing free wavelength resources and the resources of backup lightpaths, which are not used usually for transporting traffic. The results of computer simulations indicate that the traffic loss is remarkably reduced in the 14-node network we used as an example.     

Integrated design of fault localization and survivable mapping in IP over transparent WDM networks

Lightpaths play multiple critical roles in cross-layer fault management of IP over transparent optical networks. While the roles of lightpaths have been discussed specifically in fault localization as well as fault recovery phases, these existing works only take a sporadic, piecemeal view of these roles by studying each of them individually as a separate lightpath routing problem. In this paper, we instead take an integrated, systematic view by considering these multiple roles jointly as one single lightpath routing problem. In particular, we propose a new design model to fulfill the lightpath layout requirements in both identifying fiber link failures for fault localization and ensuring IP topology connectivity for fault recovery. With a much smaller formulation size, our new model significantly outperforms the existing counterpart in computational efficiency, scalability, and solution quality.     

Optimum Arrangement of Reliable Label-Switched Paths in MPLS Over Optical Networks

In MPLS (Multi-Protocol Label Switching) over optical networks, both the optical level and the MPLS level fault recovery can be considered. Generally, a more flexible path arrangement can be realized by the MPLS level recovery, while fast recovery can be achieved by the optical level recovery. When the optical level recovery is adopted, only normal traffic is carried through the working lightpaths and only recovered traffic is carried through the backup lightpaths. In contrast, the working LSPs (Label-Switched Paths) and the backup LSPs corresponding to other working LSPs can be accommodated into an identical lightpath when the MPLS level recovery is adopted. By such sophisticated accommodation of LSPs into the lightpaths, lightpath bandwidth can be utilized efficiently under the condition that the bandwidth utilization is restricted to attain the given objective of transfer quality for the MPLS packets in the normal state and unrestricted in a short time a failure occurs somewhere in the network. This paper proposes a simple mathematical programming model to obtain the optimum arrangement of the working and backup LSPs assuming the MPLS level recovery and a practical LSPs provisioning mode. By comparing the minimized network cost obtained from the optimum arrangement of the working and backup LSPs with the network cost resulting from the optical level recovery, this paper quantitatively evaluates the effectiveness of such bandwidth utilization improvement obtained from the MPLS level recovery and reveals that the MPLS level recovery can actually reduce the network cost due to its flexible arrangement of LSPs on the lightpaths.     

Multi-domain grooming algorithm based on hierarchical integrated multi-granularity auxiliary graph in optical mesh networks

With the size of traffic demands ranges from sub-wavelength-level to wavelength-level, traffic demands need to be aggregated and carried over the network in a cost-effective manner to make sure that the resources are utilized effectively. Therefore, the technique called multi-granularity grooming is proposed to save the cost by reducing the number of switching ports in optical cross-connects. However, the existing multi-granularity grooming algorithms are mostly limited in single-domain optical networks. Since the current optical backbone keeps enlarging and is actually divided to multiple independent domains for achieving the scalability and the confidentiality, it is necessary to study the multi-granularity grooming in multi-domain optical networks. In this paper, we propose a new heuristic algorithm called hierarchical multi-domain multi-granularity grooming (HMMG) based on hierarchical integrated multi-granularity auxiliary graph (H-IMAG) to reduce the total number of optical switching ports. The H-IMAG is composed of the inter-domain virtual topology graph (VTG) and the intra-domain integrated layered auxiliary graph (ILAG), where VTG includes a wavelength virtual topology graph (WVTG) and a waveband virtual topology graph (BVTG), and ILAG includes a wavelength layered auxiliary graph (WLAG) and a waveBand layered auxiliary graph (BLAG). Then, we can groom the sub-wavelength-level demands into lightpaths based on WVTG and WLAG and groom the wavelength-level demands into high-capacity wavebands based on BVTG and BLAG. Simulation results show that performances of H-IMAG can be significantly improved compared with previous algorithm.     

Dynamic circuit provisioning in all-optical WDM networks using lightpath switching

In this paper we investigate the problem of provisioning holding-time-aware (HTA) dynamic circuits in all-optical wavelength division multiplexed (WDM) networks. We employ a technique called lightpath switching (LPS) wherein the data transmission may begin on one lightpath and switch to a different lightpath at a later time. Lightpath switches are transparent to the user and are managed by the network. Allowing LPS creates a number of segments that can use independent lightpaths. We first compare the performance of traditional routing and wavelength (RWA) assignment to routing and wavelength assignment with LPS. We show that LPS can significantly reduce blocking compared to traditional RWA. We then address the problem of routing dynamic anycast HTA dynamic circuits. We propose two heuristics to solve the anycast RWA problem: anycast with continuous segment (ACS) and anycast with lightpath switching (ALPS). In ALPS we exercise LPS, and provision a connection request by searching for the best candidate destination node is such a way that the network resources are utilized efficiently. In ACS we do not allow a connection request to switch lightpaths. The lightpaths to each candidate destination node of a request are computed using traditional RWA algorithms. We first compare the performance of ACS to ALPS and observe that ALPS achieves better blocking than ACS. Furthermore, we also compare the performance of these two anycast RWA algorithms to the traditional unicast RWA algorithm. We show that the anycast RWA algorithms presented here significantly outperform the traditional unicast RWA algorithms.     

一种改进的多域光网络保护机制

生存性是保证业务服务质量的关键,多域光网络生存性问题中,由于存在多域间拓扑和路由信息不可见等约束,导致生存性实现较为困难.提出了将多域光网络进行逻辑聚合的思路,在此基础上分别针对域内和域间提出了非等值负载保护和M∶1保护机制.域内的非等值负载保护机制可以根据节点数以及业务量动态地分配保护路径,从而有效地提高资源利用率.     

Survivable lightpath provisioning in WDM mesh networks under shared path protection and signal quality constraints

This paper addresses the problem of survivable lightpath provisioning in wavelength-division-multiplexing (WDM) mesh networks, taking into consideration optical-layer protection and some realistic optical signal quality constraints. The investigated networks use sparsely placed optical-electrical-optical (O/E/O) modules for regeneration and wavelength conversion. Given a fixed network topology with a number of sparsely placed O/E/O modules and a set of connection requests, a pair of link-disjoint lightpaths is established for each connection. Due to physical impairments and wavelength continuity, both the working and protection lightpaths need to be regenerated at some intermediate nodes to overcome signal quality degradation and wavelength contention. In the present paper, resource-efficient provisioning solutions are achieved with the objective of maximizing resource sharing. The authors propose a resource-sharing scheme that supports three kinds of resource-sharing scenarios, including a conventional wavelength-link sharing scenario, which shares wavelength links between protection lightpaths, and two new scenarios, which share O/E/O modules between protection lightpaths and between working and protection lightpaths. An integer linear programming (ILP)-based solution approach is used to find optimal solutions. The authors also propose a local optimization heuristic approach and a tabu search heuristic approach to solve this problem for real-world, large mesh networks. Numerical results show that our solution approaches work well under a variety of network settings and achieves a high level of resource-sharing rates (over 60% for O/E/O modules and over 30% for wavelength links), which translate into great savings in network costs.     

Idle Protection Capacity Reuse in Multiclass Optical Networks

Optical networks carrying traffic belonging to different survivability classes must ensure not only the proper survivability differentiation but also the efficient network resource utilization. Current approaches improve network resource utilization by carrying low-class preemptable traffic along high-class spare resources, which are idle (i.e., unutilized) during failure-free conditions. In this paper, the proposed idle protection capacity reuse (IR) framework generalizes the practice of reutilizing idle spare resources to both failure-free and failure conditions. The IR framework is based on the idea of exploiting idle high-class lightpath protection resources not only for routing low-class lightpaths during the provisioning phase (i.e., provisioning-phase IR, P-IR) but also for dynamically restoring low-class lightpaths during the recovery phase (i.e., recovery-phase IR, R-IR). Both P-IR and R-IR have the potential to improve network utilization while providing multiclass lightpaths with the required survivability differentiation. The numerical evaluation shows that the utilization of R-IR in dynamic restoration results in an improved low-class lightpath survivability with respect to the utilization of stub release. Moreover, if P-IR and R-IR are alternatively exploited, then the former improves the provisioning performance, while the latter guarantees a higher survivability. In the end, if P-IR and R-IR are concurrently employed in the provisioning and in the dynamic restoration of two different low classes of lightpaths, respectively, an inherent survivability differentiation is achieved     

A novel domain-by-domain survivable mechanism in multi-domain wavelength-division-multiplexing optical networks

In multi-domain wavelength-division-multiplexing (WDM) optical networks, the inter-domain routing is a challenge since each single-domain cannot view the full network topology. At the same time, survivability is also an important issue in optical networks since the failures of fiber links or network nodes may lead to a lot of traffic being blocked. In this paper, we study the survivability in multi-domain WDM optical networks, and propose a new survivable mechanism called load balanced domain-by-domain routing (LBDDR). In LBDDR, in order to obtain the efficient inter-domain survivable routes, we present the domain-by-domain routing (DDR) method which can find the intra-domain sub-working path and sub-backup path in each single-domain to form the inter-domain working path and backup path for each demand. In order to reduce the blocking probability, we present the load balanced routing method which can encourage the traffic to be uniformly distributed on the links with more free wavelengths. Simulation results show that, compared with conventional mechanism, LBDDR can obtain better performances.