Routing and Wavelength Assignment in Optical Networks Using Logical Link Representation and Efficient Bitwise Computation

In this paper, we propose and evaluate a new approach for implementing efficient routing and wavelength assignment (RWA) in wavelength division multiplexing (WDM) optical networks. In our method, the state of a fiber is given by the set of free wavelengths in this fiber and is efficiently represented as a compact bitmap. The state of a multiple-fiber link is also represented by a compact bitmap computed as the logical union of the individual bitmaps of the fibers in this link. Likewise, the state of a lightpath is represented by a similar bitmap computed as the logical intersection of the individual bitmaps of the links in this path. The count of the number of 1-valued bits in the bitmap of the route from source to destination is used as the primary reward function in route selection. A modified Dijkstra algorithm is developed for dynamic routing based on the bitmap representation. The algorithm uses bitwise logical operations and is quite efficient. A first-fit channel assignment algorithm is developed using a simple computation on the bitmap of the selected route. The resulting bitwise routing algorithm combines the benefits of least loaded routing algorithms and shortest path routing algorithms. Our extensive simulation tests have shown that the bitwise RWA approach has small storage overhead, is computationally fast, and reduces the network-wide blocking probability. The blocking performance of our RWA method compares very favorably with three routing methods: fixed alternate routing, shortest path using flooding, and Dijkstra’s algorithm using mathematical operations. Our simulation experiments have also evaluated the performance gain obtained when the network access stations are equipped with finite buffers to temporarily hold blocked connection requests.     

Routing Mechanisms Employing Adaptive Weight Functions for Shortest Path Routing in Optical WDM Networks

Optical dense wavelength division multiplexed (DWDM) networks are an attractive candidate for the next generation Internet and beyond. In this paper, we consider routing and wavelength assignment in a wide area wavelength routed backbone network that employs circuit-switching. When a session request is received by the network, the routing and wavelength assignment (RWA) task is to establish a lightpath between the source and destination. That is, determine a suitable path and assign a set of wavelengths for the links on this path. We consider a link state protocol approach and use Dijkstras shortest path algorithm, suitably modified for DWDM networks, for computing the shortest paths. In [1] we proposed WDM aware weight functions that included factors such as available wavelengths per link, total wavelengths per link. In this paper, we present new weight functions that exploit the strong correlation between blocking probability and number of hops involved in connection setup to increase the performance of the network. We also consider alternate path routing that computes the alternate paths based on WDM aware weight functions. The impact of the weight functions on the blocking probability and delay is studied through discrete event simulation. The system parameters varied include number of network nodes, wavelengths, degree of wavelength conversion, and load. The results show that the weight function that incorporates both hop count and available wavelength provides the best performance in terms of blocking probability.     

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     

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.     

部分共享波长转换光网络动态路由的改进算法

提出了一种应用于部分共享波长转换（PWC）的波长路由光网络（WRON）中的基于节点阻塞的动态路由算法,它不需要共享复杂的波长转换信息,而是将各节点的阻塞特性考虑到路由过程中。为评价算法性能,在14节点的国家科学基金网（NSFNET）拓扑中进行了仿真。结果表明,新的路由算法显著改善了网络的阻塞性能和建路失败的概率,尤其是随着网络负载的降低,网络性能的改善更显著。     

一种快速动态分布式光链路建立方法

提出一种改进的波长分配算法,用于波长路由光网络中快速动态分布式光链路的建立。该算法采用提前释放和超时释放两种波长和链路释放机制,减少了网络拥塞,更适合波长路由网络的实际运行规则。通过在美国自然科学基金网(NSF)上的仿真计算,与以前的研究结果相比,该算法可以减少网络的阻塞率8％,同时缩短了光链路建立的时间。     

A Comparison of Allocation Policies in Wavelength Routing Networks*

We consider wavelength routing networks with and without wavelength converters, and several wavelength allocation policies. Through numerical and simulation results we obtain upper and lower bounds on the blocking probabilities for two wavelength allocation policies that are most likely to be used in practice, namely, most-used and first-fit allocation. These bounds are the blocking probabilities obtained by the random wavelength allocation policy with either no converters or with converters at all nodes of the network. Furthermore, we demonstrate that using the most-used or first-fit policies gives an improvement on call blocking probabilities that is equivalent to employing converters at a number of nodes in a network with the random allocation policy. These results have been obtained for a wide range of loads for both single-path and general mesh topology networks. The main conclusion of our work is that the gains obtained by employing specialized and expensive hardware (namely, wavelength converters) can be realized cost-effectively by making more intelligent choices in software (namely, the wavelength allocation policy).     

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。     

A token-based routing mechanism for GMPLS-controlled WDM networks

This paper analyzes destination initiated reservation for Generalized Multi-Protocol Label Switching (GMPLS) based wavelength division multiplexing (WDM) networks and determines, via simulation, probabilities of both forward blocking and backward blocking. During light traffic load, any degradation in performance is due to backward blocking, whereas during heavy traffic load forward blocking dominates. In order to minimize performance degradation due to blocking, this paper proposes a token based routing scheme that is capable of searching for the availability of more than one route from source to destination, meeting the desired quality of service (QoS). Extensive simulation results show that the proposed technique significantly improves the blocking performance and setup delay.     

Modified Least Load Multicast Routings for Single Rate Fully-Connected Loss Networks

In this paper, we investigate the dynamic multicast routing problem and briefly discuss the common dynamic multicast routing algorithm called Least Load Multicast Routing (LLMR). We propose two new multicast routing algorithms called Least Load Multicast Routing with Maximum Occupied Circuits (LLMRMOC) and Least Load Multicast Routing with Minimum Measured Blocking Time (LLMRMMBT), both of which are based on LLMR. Simulation results show that these algorithms, compared with LLMR, not only produce a smaller network revenue loss, but also result in smaller call blocking probabilities for all classes of traffic. The moderate gain in the network performance comes only a slight additional cost. The implementation issues of the proposed algorithms are also discussed.     

DWDM波长路由网络光链路负载均衡的波长路由算法

提出了一种应用于密集波分复用(DWDM)波长路由网络(WRON)中光链路负荷均衡的思想,并将其应用于优化Dijkstra算法的权值,同时将优化Dijkstra算法用于遗传算法求得了在不同的负荷条件下波长下限的网络所需波长数目。并将优化前后的算法分别对美国自然科学基金(NSF)网络的最优波长分配进行数值分析,发现基于负荷均衡思想的优化Dijkstra算法能够对网络的性能有很大提高：当遗传代数为20代时,采用优化Dijkstra算法阻塞率降低了约36％;当波长使用数为7个时,降低网络阻塞率10％。     

Computing approximate blocking probabilities for a class ofall-optical networks

We study a class of all-optical networks using wavelength-division multiplexing (WDM) and wavelength routing, in which a connection between a pair of nodes in the network is assigned a path and a wavelength on that path. Moreover, on the links of that path no other connection can share the assigned wavelength. Using a generalized reduced load approximation scheme we calculate the blocking probabilities for the optical network model for two routing schemes: fixed routing and least loaded routing     

An Inter-domain Routing and Signaling Scheme for Optical Mesh Networks

An inter-domain routing and signaling scheme based on the OBGP protocol for WDM networks with a mesh topology is proposed in the paper. For mesh networks with wavelength conversion, inter-domain routing and signaling are realized by introducing a new message based on an optimal path identifier (OPI) and by establishing the corresponding message-exchange procedures. Considering the wavelength continuity constraint, a strategy called improved destination wavelength assignment (IDWA) combined with the OPI-based message is presented to establish a lightpath dynamically. The scheme is verified on the NSFNET and the CERNET by simulation. Results show that the blocking performance of a non-wavelength-conversion network is even a little lower than that of a wavelength-conversion network.     

Performance Analysis of Multi-Fiber WDM Network with Limited-Range Wavelength Conversion

Wavelength routed optical networks have emerged as a technology that can effectively utilize the enormous bandwidth of the optical fiber. Wavelength conversion technology and wavelength converters play an important role in enhancing fiber utilization and in reducing the overall call blocking probability of the network. In this paper, we develop a new analytical model to calculate the average blocking probability in multi-fiber link networks using limited range wavelength conversion. Based on the results obtained, we conclude that the proposed analytical model is simple and yet can effectively analyze the impact of wavelength conversion ranges and number of fibers on network performance. Also a new heuristic approach for placement of wavelength converters to reduce blocking probabilities is explored. Finally, we analyze network performance with the proposed scheme. It can be observed from numerical simulations that limited range converters placed at a few nodes can provide almost the same blocking probability as full range wavelength converters placed at all the nodes. We also show that being equipped with a multi-fiber per-link has the same effect as being equipped with the capability of limited range wavelength conversion. So a multi-fiber per-link network using limited range wavelength conversion has similar blocking performance as a full wavelength convertible network. Since a multi-fiber network using limited range wavelength conversion could use fewer converters than a single-fiber network using limited range wavelength conversion and because wavelength converters are today more expensive than fiber equipment, a multi-fiber network in condition with limited range wavelength conversion is less costly than a single fiber network using only limited range wavelength conversion. Thus, multi-fiber per-link network using limited range wavelength conversion is currently a more practical method for all optical WDM networks. Simulation studies carried out on a 14-node NSFNET, a 10-node CERNET (China Education and Research Network), and a 9-node regular mesh network validate the analysis.     

Virtual Source Based Multicast Routing in WDM Optical Networks

Wavelength-division multiplexed (WDM) networks using wavelength-routing are considered to be potential candidates for the next generation wide-area backbone networks. Multicasting is the ability to transmit information from a single source node to multiple destination nodes and is becoming an important requirement in high-speed networks. As WDM technology matures and multicast applications become increasingly popular, supporting multicast routing at the WDM layer becomes an important and yet a challenging topic. This paper concerns with the problem of optical multicast routing in WDM networks. A few nodes in the network may have wavelength conversion and/or splitting capabilities. In this paper, a new multicast tree construction algorithm is proposed. This algorithm is based on a concept called virtual source. A virtual source is a node having both the splitting and wavelength conversion capabilities. By exploiting the presence of virtual source nodes, the proposed algorithm achieves improved performance. To further improve the performance, the algorithm assigns priorities to nodes based on their capabilities. The effectiveness of the proposed algorithm is verified through extensive simulation experiments.     

Wavelength Conversion in WDM Optical Networks: Strategies and Algorithms for Limiting the Number of Converters in the Optical Cross-Connects

This paper considers the problem of wavelength conversion in optical networks using wavelength division multiplexing technique. In the previous literature, two main wavelength routing and assignment strategies have been introduced: wavelength path (WP) and virtual wavelength path (VWP), depending on whether the signal stays on the same wavelength or is converted to another during its travel throughout the network. While the former method does not require any wavelength conversion, the latter needs wavelength conversion in each optical node and, in particular, a wavelength converter per each signal handled by the node itself. From the previous literature emerged that the VWP leads to optical cross-connect (OXC) with lower dimensions compared to the ones required by the WP scheme, and that the difference between the WP and VWP schemes increases as the number of wavelengths carried by each fiber increases. In this paper a new strategy is introduced, named partial virtual wavelength path (PVWP), with the related wavelength routing and assignment algorithm, which makes limited use of wavelength conversion compared to the VWP scheme, and allows the same advantages of VWP to be attained with lower OXC dimensions. The paper reports a comparative analysis among the different strategies, considering both the cases of a network without failures and a network with the possibility of failure restoration. The main result is that the proposed PVWP strategy allows the same advantages of the VWP scheme with a strongly reduced number of wavelength converters (around 5% of the number required by VWP scheme). This figure does not vary appreciably if failure restoration is considered. The new strategy can be adopted by using an opportune OXC architecture, as illustrated in the paper, which allow a limited number of converters to be shared among all the channels as a common pool.     

基于改进蚁群算法的卫星光网络波长分配方法

路由与波长分配是下一代光网络的需要解决的核心问题之一。本文采用智能蚁群算法,研究了卫星光网络的路由与波长分配问题,为通信请求寻找最优的数据传输光路径。基于请求区域受限策略(Restricted Request Area,RRA)和链路波长负载平衡策略,建立了考虑传输延迟和波长连续性约束的双主星分布式星群节点结构光网络系统模型。利用智能蚁群路由和波长分配(Smart Ant Colony Routing AndWavelength Assignment,SAC-RWA)算法求解系统模型,以找到具有稀疏波长转换的卫星光网络中最小成本波长路径。所提出的算法允许单个蚂蚁同时完成路由和波长分配,仿真结果表明,RRA能够明显改进卫星光网络的性能,以略微增加拥塞率的代价显著降低了计算复杂度。     

WDM网络中基于负载平衡的动态波长路由算法

在WDM网络中，路由和波长分配（RWA）算法是一个焦点问题．当前的RWA算法多是考虑路径跳数或全网拥塞程度，并没有分析各个链路的具体情况．文中提出一种WDM网络中能实现负载平衡的路由算法——最大波长跳数比值（MWHR）算法。基本思想是：根据各备选路径的跳数和其经过的各链路上的可用波长数信息。计算该路径的优先选取权值，优先选取权值最大的路径．仿真表明，该算法在保证较低的阻塞率情况下，能有效的将业务负载均衡分布在网络中的所有链路上．     

Dynamic Routing in WDM Grooming Networks

Traffic grooming in optical networks has gained significant importance in recent years due to the prevailing sub-wavelength traffic requirement of end-users. In this paper, a methodology for dynamic routing of fractional-wavelength traffic in WDM grooming networks is developed. To evaluate the performance of routing algorithms, a new performance metric that reflects the network utilization is also proposed. The performances of shortest-widest path, widest-shortest path, and available shortest path routing algorithms are evaluated on a class of WDM grooming networks by considering traffic of different capacity requirements. The effect of dispersity routing, where higher capacity requests are broken into multiple unit capacity requests, is also investigated. The most interesting counter-intuitive result that is observed is that increasing the grooming capability in a network could result in degrading the performance of the widest-shortest path algorithm.     

A Virtual Wavelength Translation Scheme for Routing in All-Optical Networks

This paper considers wavelength routed WDM networks where multiple fibers are used for each communication link. For such networks, the effect of wavelength translation can be achieved without explicit use of wavelength translators. We call this as virtual wavelength translation and study the routing issues considering dynamic lightpath allocation. Using multiple (or a bundle of) fibers for each link also allows us to have bundles of varying sizes to accommodate anticipated differences in traffic through different communication links of the network. The paper considers the blocking probabilities of all-optical networks when centralized and distributed lightpath allocation schemes are used.