Availability-Aware Provisioning Strategies for Differentiated Protection Services in Wavelength-Convertible WDM Mesh Networks

In an optical WDM mesh network, different protection schemes (such as dedicated or shared protection) can be used to improve the service availability against network failures. However, in order to satisfy a connections service-availability requirement in a cost-effective and resource-efficient manner, we need a systematic mechanism to select a proper protection scheme for each connection request while provisioning the connection. In this paper, we propose to use connection availability as a metric to provide differentiated protection services in a wavelength-convertible WDM mesh network. We develop a mathematical model to analyze the availabilities of connections with different protection modes (i.e., unprotected, dedicated protected, or shared protected). In the shared-protection case, we investigate how a connection's availability is affected by backup resource sharing. The sharing might cause backup resource contention between several connections when multiple simultaneous (or overlapping) failures occur in the network. Using a continuous-time Markov model, we derive the conditional probability for a connection to acquire backup resources in the presence of backup resource contention. Through this model, we show how the availability of a shared-protected connection can be quantitatively computed. Based on the analytical model, we develop provisioning strategies for a given set of connection demands in which an appropriate, possibly different, level of protection is provided to each connection according to its predefined availability requirement, e.g., 0.999, 0.997. We propose integer linear programming (ILP) and heuristic approaches to provision the connections cost effectively while satisfying the connections' availability requirements. The effectiveness of our provisioning approaches is demonstrated through numerical examples. The proposed provisioning strategies inherently facilitate the service differentiation in optical WDM mesh networks.     

Availability-aware service provisioning in SD-EON-based inter-datacenter networks

The tremendous transmission capacity and flexible spectrum allocation scheme make elastic optical networks (EONs) one of the most promising infrastructures for constructing the interconnection in datacenter (DC) networks. Meanwhile, as DC traffics exhibit highly dynamic and heterogeneous features, differentiated service provisioning schemes are desired. In this paper, we take the advantage of centralized network control and management provided by the software-defined elastic optical networks (SD-EONs) and investigate availability-aware service provisioning in SD-EON-based inter-datacenter (inter-DC) networks. We first describe the problem of availability-aware service provisioning in SD-EON-based inter-DC networks and present the theoretical analysis for service availability. Then, we propose an availability-aware service provisioning algorithm (ASP) that leverages different path protection schemes to satisfy different service availability requirements. A service downgrading (SD) strategy is also designed as a supplement of ASP to further improve its performance. Simulation results show that the proposed ASP-SD algorithm can effectively improve the spectrum efficiency without sacrificing availability.     

Achieving Resource-Efficient Survivable Provisioning in Service Differentiated WDM Mesh Networks

A resource-efficient provisioning framework (RPF) is proposed in this paper for optical networks providing dedicated path protection (DPP) and shared path protection (SPP) services. The framework reduces resource consumption by considering spare capacity reservation of DPP and SPP cooperatively while provides 100% survivability guarantee and maintains the recovery time for both protection types against the predominant single link failures. To tackle the service provisioning problem under the framework, an integer linear programming (ILP) formulation is presented to find the optimal routing solution for a given set of traffic demands. The objective is to minimize total capacities consumed by working and backup paths of all demands. Then, heuristics are developed for on-line routing under dynamic change of traffic. Numerical results show that compared with traditional provisioning framework (TPF), the RPF has the following advantages: 1) Over 10% capacity savings are achieved for static service provisioning; 2) blocking probability of both protection types is greatly reduced; 3) lower resource overbuild is achieved; and 4) average backup-path hop distance of shared-path-protected flows is reduced. Finally, network survivability in face of double link failures is discussed under the framework.      

Shared Risk Link Group (SRLG)-Diverse Path Provisioning Under Hybrid Service Level Agreements in Wavelength-Routed Optical Mesh Networks

The static provisioning problem in wavelength-routed optical networks has been studied for many years. However, service providers are still facing the challenges arising from the special requirements for provisioning services at the optical layer. In this paper, we incorporate some realistic constraints into the static provisioning problem, and formulate it under different network resource availability conditions. We consider three classes of shared risk link group (SRLG)-diverse path protection schemes: dedicated, shared, and unprotected. We associate with each connection request a lightpath length constraint and a revenue value. When the network resources are not sufficient to accommodate all the connection requests, the static provisioning problem is formulated as a revenue maximization problem, whose objective is maximizing the total revenue value. When the network has sufficient resources, the problem becomes a capacity minimization problem with the objective of minimizing the number of used wavelength-links. We provide integer linear programming (ILP) formulations for these problems. Because solving these ILP problems is extremely time consuming, we propose a tabu search heuristic to solve these problems within a reasonable amount of time. We also develop a rerouting optimization heuristic, which is based on previous work. Experimental results are presented to compare the solutions obtained by the tabu search heuristic and the rerouting optimization heuristic. For both problems, the tabu search heuristic outperforms the rerouting optimization heuristic.     

Incremental survivable network design with topology augmentation in SDH/SONET mesh networks

An incremental capacity allocation with topology augmentation problem is investigated in this article to maximize the service restorability in SDH/SONET mesh networks. To tackle the optimal design problem, two schemes are proposed, i.e., minimal backup path provisioning with topology augmentation (MBPP-TA), and global path pair provisioning with topology augmentation (GPPP-TA). Both schemes are formulated as integer linear programming (ILP) models, and are implemented using the proposed two-step linear programming (LP) approaches. Numerical results show that the two-step LP approaches achieve better solutions with significantly less execution time than the direct ILP approach. Moreover, results show that GPPP-TA provides better solutions than MBPP-TA at the cost of longer computation time.     

Optimal provisioning for virtual network request in cloud-based data centers

Today applications and services are migrating to a cloud-computing-based paradigm in which the users access the applications and services hosted in data centers, by using thin-clients on the user terminal device. These applications/services are typically hosted and run on virtual machines in interconnected data centers. Different applications from the same user may need to access and change shared data or information. Thus, we may abstract the applications from same user as a virtual network (VN). For better performance and efficiency, it is critical that the VN request be accommodated with optimal provisioning under the current resource state of data centers. In this paper, for addressing the issue of how to design an optimal provisioning scheme for the VN request such that the total revenue of is maximized, we first develop a framework for the optimal provisioning of VN request by using mixed integer programming. Since the optimal provisioning problem is NP-hard, we also propose a genetic algorithm?Cbased heuristic algorithm for addressing the problem of optimal provisioning for VN with unsplittable flow and optimal provisioning for VN with splittable flow problems. We demonstrate the effectiveness of our approach in improving the total revenue by conducting extensive simulations on different networks.     

Differentiated integrated QoS control in the optical Internet

In order to facilitate convergence of networks and services, this article investigates a new hybrid and integrated QoS control scheme that combines electrical IP layer features with reconfigurable optical layer, and addresses cross-layer design on QoS control in optical Internet (i.e., IP/WDM networks). The proposed integrated QoS control scheme can not only provide appropriate transport service for various types of traffic relating to different service categories in a cost-effective way, but also maintain high flexibility/scalability for integrated services provisioning, which seems to be preferred for QoS provisioning in the next-generation multiservice integrated optical Internet.     

A balancing scheme for QoS-aware service provisioning in OPS networks

The service level agreement (SLA) specifies the service availability that a service provider promises to a customer. Through introducing SLA into optical packet switching networks, a balancing scheme for quality of service-aware service provisioning is proposed, which uses packet loss ratio as availability index to obtain a larger number of SLA-satisfied services and achieve a better balance among different level services by means of discarding packets with better packet loss capacity in priority to fully make use of the capacity of services themselves. The theoretical analysis and simulation results show that the proposed scheme outperforms the other two typical service provisioning schemes in terms of the above two aspects.     

A review of fault management in WDM mesh networks: basic concepts and research challenges

The article first presents a broad overview of the fault management mechanisms involved in deploying a survivable optical mesh network which employs optical crossconnects. We review various protection and restoration schemes, primary and back-up route computation methods, shareability optimization, and dynamic restoration. We then describe different parameters that can measure the quality of service provided by a WDM mesh network to upper protocol layers (e.g., IP network backbones, ATM network backbones, leased lines, virtual private networks), such as service availability, service reliability, restoration time, and service restorability. We review these concepts, the factors that affect them, and how to improve them. In particular, we present a framework for cost-effective availability-aware connection provisioning to provide differentiated services in WDM mesh networks. Through the framework, the more realistic scenario of multiple near-simultaneous failures can be handled. In addition, the emerging problem of protecting low-speed connections of different bandwidth granularities is also reviewed.     

Service overlay networks: SLAs, QoS, and bandwidth provisioning

We advocate the notion of service overlay network (SON) as an effective means to address some of the issues, in particular, end-to-end quality of service (QoS), plaguing the current Internet, and to facilitate the creation and deployment of value-added Internet services such as VoIP, Video-on-Demand, and other emerging QoS-sensitive services. The SON purchases bandwidth with certain QoS guarantees from the individual network domains via bilateral service level agreement (SLA) to build a logical end-to-end service delivery infrastructure on top of the existing data transport networks. Via a service contract, users directly pay the SON for using the value-added services provided by the SON. In this paper, we study the bandwidth provisioning problem for a SON which buys bandwidth from the underlying network domains to provide end-to-end value-added QoS sensitive services such as VoIP and Video-on-Demand. A key problem in the SON deployment is the problem of bandwidth provisioning, which is critical to cost recovery in deploying and operating the value-added services over the SON. The paper is devoted to the study of this problem. We formulate the bandwidth provisioning problem mathematically, taking various factors such as SLA, service QoS, traffic demand distributions, and bandwidth costs. Analytical models and approximate solutions are developed for both static and dynamic bandwidth provisioning. Numerical studies are also performed to illustrate the properties of the proposed solutions and demonstrate the effect of traffic demand distributions and bandwidth costs on SON bandwidth provisioning.     

Backup reprovisioning with partial protection for disaster-survivable software-defined optical networks

As networks grow in size, large-scale failures caused by disasters may lead to huge data loss, especially in an optical network employing wavelength-division multiplexing (WDM). Providing 100 % protection against disasters would require massive and economically unsustainable bandwidth overprovisioning, as disasters are difficult to predict, statistically rare, and may create large-scale failures. Backup reprovisioning schemes are proposed to remedy this problem, but in case of a large-scale disaster, even the flexibility provided by backup reprovisioning may not be enough, given the sudden reduction in available network resource, i.e., resource crunch. To mitigate the adverse effects of resource crunch, an effective resource reallocation is possible by exploiting service heterogeneity, specifically degraded-service tolerance, which makes it possible to provide some level of service, e.g., reduced capacity, to connections that can tolerate degraded service, versus no service at all. Software-Defined Networking (SDN) is a promising approach to perform such dynamic changes (redistribution of network resources) as it simplifies network management via centralized control logic. By exploiting these new opportunities, we propose a Backup Reprovisioning with Partial Protection (BRPP) scheme supporting dedicated-path protection, where backup resources are reserved but not provisioned (as in shared-path protection), such that the amount of bandwidth reserved for backups as well as their routings are subject to dynamic changes, given the network state, to increase utilization. The performance of the proposed scheme is evaluated by means of SDN emulation using Mininet environment and OpenDaylight as the controller.     

Trustworthy Web services provisioning for differentiated customer services

With the number of e-Business applications dramatically increasing, a service level agreement (SLA) will play an important part in Web services. The SLA is a combination of several quality of services (QoS), such as security, performance, and availability, agreed between a customer and a service provider. Most existing research addresses only one of these QoS metrics. Furthermore, in the case of the response time defined as one of QoS metrics for performance, only the average time to process and complete a job is typically used. Moreover, customer requests often need to be distinguished, with different request characteristics and customer’s different service requirements. In this paper, we consider a set of computer resources used by a service broker to host enterprise applications for two classes of differentiated customer services subject to a service level agreement. We study three QoS metrics, namely, trustworthiness, a percentile response time, and availability. The percentile response time metric defines a value below which the end-to-end response time has to be for a given percent of time. We present an approach for resource optimization in such an environment that minimizes the total cost of computer resources while satisfying all these three QoS metrics in a trust-based resource provisioning problem which typically arises in Web services. We formulate the trust-based resource provisioning problem as an optimization problem under SLA constraints, and then solve it using an efficient numerical procedure.     

Incremental survivable network design against node failure in SDH/SONET mesh networks

Network survivability is becoming more and more important for the plenty of information each single fiber carries. Extra network resources are needed to increase network survivability level. In this paper, we investigate the problem of how to augment the network topology with adding new links and allocate spare capacity to maximize the service restorability against node failures in SDH/SONET mesh networks. A scheme called maximal node-disjoint backup paths provisioning with topology augmentation is proposed to tackle the problem, and another scheme called globally optimized path provisioning with topology augmentation, which allows adjusting the existing working paths of network flows, is investigated to optimize the augmented network globally. Both schemes are formulated as mixed integer linear programming models. Furthermore, heuristic algorithms are investigated to be implemented in software. Three algorithms, i.e., added links searching method, successive maximal survivable routing method, and random sequence routing convergence method, are designed and compared. Simulation results show the effectiveness of the algorithms.     

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.     

Adaptive DC interconnection provisioning in distributed all-optical micro-datacenters using holistically SDN orchestration for dynamic access

The metro-embedded datacenter (ME-DC) architecture which is based on micro-DCs (mDC) is introduced and implemented to deliver more flexible services with less access latency. Hierarchical SDN control is employed to adaptively interconnect the distributed mDCs and the metro network slices into re-configurable virtual DC (VDC). Such an approach improves the overall resource mobility, especially for traveling users that need to dynamically access the service. In this paper, the VDC re-configuration and pre-configuration mechanisms for dynamic user access are proposed and demonstrated for the first time. In specific, by re-configuring the VDC with the most accessible resources with user location tracking, fast and flexible service is provided with consistent service access. Furthermore, by pre-configuring the VDC with user prediction, mDC and metro network resources are reserved in advance for users in order to provide seamless service. Demonstration based on the implemented ME-DC prototype shows that VDC is adaptively constructed for dynamic user access with fast and flexible service provisioning.     

Practical and analytical approaches for designing scalable on‐demand policy‐based resource allocation in stateless IP networks

Today the policy‐based management (PBM) approach is recognized as an efficient solution to simplify the complex task of managing and controlling networks. To this end, the Internet Engineering Task Force (IETF) has introduced a reference framework to build PBM systems. However, this framework only addresses the provisioning of relatively long validity period services based on predefined service‐level agreements. Furthermore, very little work addresses the scalability properties of the instantiation of this framework in a real network. This work aims to extend the IETF PBM framework in order to support dynamic provisioning of short‐term services (end‐system signalling) as well as an instantiation scheme that is scalable (distributed provisioning of edge routers). This instantiation scheme is based on the distribution of the provisioning process while keeping centralized only the parts that involve critical resources, namely bandwidth brokerage. The performance properties of the proposed scheme are then demonstrated throughout both extensive experimentation and an analytical study. The extension of this performance analysis to the case where multiple bandwidth brokers are used is also discussed. The results of this work are intended to be used as a guideline to help network operators to design a scalable PBM system in order to offer to their customers services with quality of service assurance on an on‐demand basis. Copyright © 2011 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Achieving resource reduction for protecting multicast sessions in WDM mesh networks

The advances in wavelength division multiplexing (WDM) technology are expected to facilitate bandwidth-intensive multicast application by establishing a light-tree, which regards the source node as the root, and involves all the destination nodes. The light-tree is sensitive to failures, e.g., a single fiber cut may disrupt the transmission of information to several destination nodes. Thus, it is imperative to protect multicast sessions. In this work, we investigate the problem of protecting dynamic multicast sessions in mesh WDM networks against single link failures. Our objectives are to minimize the usage of network resources in terms of wavelength links for provisioning survivable multicast session, and to reduce the multicast session blocking probability. We propose two efficient multicast session protecting algorithms, called Optimal Path Pair based Removing Residual Links (OPP-RRL) and Source Leaf Path based Avoiding Residual Links (SLP-ARL), which try to reduce the usage of network resource by removing or avoiding residual links in the topology consisting of light-tree and its backup paths. To evaluate the proposed algorithms, we apply Integer Linear Programming (ILP) to generate an optimal solution. We also compare the proposed algorithms with existing algorithms through simulation. Simulation results indicate that the two proposed algorithms have better performance than other existing algorithms in terms of wavelength links required and network blocking probability. Furthermore, the solutions generated by the two proposed algorithms are quite close to the solutions generated by ILP in terms of the number of wavelength links required, when the network size is small.     

Integrated service creation environment for open network services

The service creation scheme is changing with the advent of open network service architecture for next-generation network. New requirements should be considered for IT domain developers to create telecom and Internet combined services more easily. This paper describes an integrated service creation environment (SCE) to reflect the trend of network evolution toward an open network environment. The SCE provides multiple service programming tools to support various users’ background, a mash-up toolkit for IT domain, a simulation-based validation tool, a run-time adaptation tool, and a personalized service provisioning environment. Several example services were implemented to verify the features of an integrated SCE. Our approach is very promising because it supports various requirements and background of service developers on the full service creation process. Furthermore, it provides a means for personalized service creation driven by end-user, which is a new trend of future network.     

Dynamic Multicast Session Provisioning in WDM Optical Networks with Sparse Splitting Capability

In this work, we study dynamic provisioning of multicast sessions in a wavelength-routed sparse splitting capable WDM network with an arbitrary mesh topology where the network consists of nodes with full, partial, or no wavelength conversion capabilities and a node can be a tap-and-continue (TaC) node or a splitting and delivery (SaD) node. The objectives are to minimize the network resources in terms of wavelength-links used by each session and to reduce the multicast session blocking probability. The problem is to route the multicast session from each source to the members of every multicast session, and to assign an appropriate wavelength to each link used by the session. We propose an efficient online algorithm for dynamic multicast session provisioning. To evaluate the proposed algorithm, we apply the integer linear programming (ILP) optimization tool on a per multicast session basis to solve off-line the optimal routing and wavelength assignment given a multicast session and the current network topology as well as its residual network resource information. We formulate the per session multicast routing and wavelength assignment problem as an ILP. With this ILP formulation, the multicast session blocking probability or success probability can then be estimated based on solving a series of ILPs off-line. We have evaluated the effectiveness of the proposed online algorithm via simulation in terms of session blocking probability and network resources used by a session. Simulation results indicate that our proposed computationally efficient online algorithm performs well even when a fraction of the nodes are SaD nodes.     

Managing Layer 1 VPN services

Control Plane architectures enhance transport networks with distributed signaling and routing mechanisms which allow dynamic connection control. As a result, layer 1 switching networks enabled with a distributed control plane can support the provisioning of advanced connectivity services like Virtual Private Networks (VPNs). Such Layer 1 VPN (L1VPN) service allows multiple customer networks to share a single transport network in a cost-effective way. However, L1VPN deployment still faces many challenges.In this work, we are concerned on configuration management and interdomain provisioning of L1VPN services. We propose an L1VPN management architecture based on the Policy-Based Management (PBM) approach. First, we describe the architecture and how it allows a single service provider to support multiple L1VPNs while providing customers with some level of control over their respective service. Then we explain how the architecture was extended to support interdomain L1VPNs by using the Virtual Topology approach. We also discuss the prototype implementation and evaluation of the proposed architecture. Moreover, this work is a tentative note before raising a more deep discussion related to interdomain provisioning of L1VPN services and implications of a policy-based approach for L1VPN configuration management.