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 network design with mixed line rates

Future telecommunication networks employing optical wavelength-division multiplexing (WDM) are expected to be increasingly heterogeneous and support a wide variety of traffic demands. Based on the nature of the demands, it may be convenient to set up lightpaths on these networks with different bit rates. Then, the network design cost could be reduced because low-bit-rate services will need less grooming (i.e., less multiplexing with other low-bit-rate services onto high-capacity wavelengths) while high-bit-rate services can be accommodated on a wavelength itself. Future optical networks may support mixed line rates (say over 10/40/100 Gbps). Since a lightpath may travel a long distance, for high bit rates, the effect of the physical impairments along a lightpath may become very significant (leading to high bit-error rate (BER)); and the signal’s maximum transmission range, which depends on the bit rate, will become limited.In this study, we propose a novel, cost-effective approach to design a mixed-line-rate (MLR) network with transmission-range (TR) constraint. By intelligent assignment of channel rates to lightpaths, based on their TR constraint, the need for signal regeneration can be minimized, and a “transparent” optical network can be designed to support all-optical end-to-end lightpaths. The design problem is formulated as an integer linear program (ILP). A heuristic algorithm is also proposed. Our results show that, with mixed line rates and maximum transmission range constraints, one can design a cost-effective network.     

Optimal regenerator assignment and resource allocation strategies for translucent optical networks

Physical layer impairments in wavelength-routed networks limit the maximum distance, a signal can travel in the optical domain, without significant distortion. Therefore, signal regeneration is required at some intermediate nodes for long-haul lightpaths. In translucent WDM networks, sparsely located regenerators at certain nodes can be used to offset the impact of physical layer impairments. The routing and wavelength assignment (RWA) techniques in such translucent networks need to take into consideration the availability of regenerators and the maximum optical reach of the transparent lightpaths (without any regeneration). Although there has been significant research interest in RWA algorithms for translucent networks, much of the research has focused on dynamic RWA techniques. Only a handful of recent papers have considered the static (offline) case, and they typically propose heuristic algorithms to solve this complex design problem for practical networks. In this paper, we propose a generalized integer linear program (ILP) based formulation for static regenerator assignment and RWA in translucent WDM optical networks, with sparse regenerator placement. To the best of our knowledge, such a formulation that optimally allocates resources for a set of lightpaths for translucent networks, given the physical network, the locations of the regenerators, and the maximum optical reach has not been considered before. The proposed formulation is important for two reasons. First, it can serve as a benchmark for evaluating different heuristic approaches that may be developedin the future. Second, we show that using a novel node representation technique, it is possible to drastically reduce the number of integer variables. This means that unlike existing ILP formulations, our approach can actually be used to generate optimal solutions for practical networks, with hundreds of lightpath demands.     

Dynamic lightpath establishment considering four-wave mixing in multifiber WDM networks

This paper proposes a dynamic lightpath establishment scheme considering four-wave mixing (FWM) in multifiber wavelength-division multiplexed (WDM) all-optical networks. The FWM is one of the most important physical impairments to be resolved in WDM networks because the FWM induces nonlinear inter-channel crosstalk and decays the performance of WDM networks. In WDM networks, data are transmitted via lightpaths. When the effect of FWM crosstalk is large, it is highly possible that data transmission fails even if lightpaths are correctly established. The proposed scheme aims to avoid not only the blocking of lightpath establishment but also the accumulation of FWM crosstalk by means of ingenious selection of routes, wavelengths, and fibers for lightpath establishment. In the proposed scheme, a route and a wavelength are selected for each lightpath based on wavelength availability and wavelength placement of established lightpaths. Furthermore, fibers on the route are selected based on estimated FWM power. In this paper, we show the effectiveness of the proposed scheme through simulation experiments.     

Impact of transmission impairments on the teletraffic performanceof wavelength-routed optical networks

In a wavelength-routed optical network, a transmitted signal remains in the optical domain over the entire route (lightpath) assigned to it between its source and destination nodes. The optical signal may have to traverse a number of crossconnect switches (XCSs), fiber segments, and optical amplifiers, e.g., erbium-doped fiber amplifiers (EDFAs). Thus, while propagating through the network, the signal may degrade in quality as it encounters crosstalk at the XCSs and also picks up amplified spontaneous emission (ASE) noise at the EDFAs. Since these impairments continue to degrade the signal quality as it progresses toward its destination, the received bit error rate (BER) at the destination node might become unacceptably high. Previous work on the lightpath routing and wavelength assignment (RWA) problem assumed an ideal physical layer and ignored these transmission impairments. The main contribution of our work is to incorporate the role of the physical layer in setting up lightpaths by employing appropriate models of multiwavelength optical devices (XCSs and EDFAs) such that the BER of a candidate lightpath can be computed, in advance, to determine if this lightpath should be used for the call. Features from existing RWA algorithms are integrated with our on-line BER calculation mechanism. Our simulation studies indicate that employing BER-based call-admission algorithms has a significant impact on the performance of realistic networks     

Offline Impairment Aware RWA Algorithms for Cross-Layer Planning of Optical Networks

Transparent optical networks are the enabling infrastructure for converged multi-granular networks in the Future Internet. The cross-layer planning of these networks considers physical impairments in the network layer design. This is complicated by the diversity of modulation formats, transmission rates, amplification and compensation equipments, or deployed fiber links. Thereby, the concept of Quality of Transmission (QoT) attempts to embrace the effects of the physical layer impairments, to introduce them in a multi-criterium optimization and planning process. This paper contributes in this field by the proposal and comparative evaluation of two novel offline impairment aware planning algorithms for transparent optical networks, which share a common QoT evaluation function. The first algorithm is based on an iterative global search driven by a set of binary integer linear programming formulations. Heuristic techniques are included to limit the binary programming complexity. The second algorithm performs different pre-orderings of the lightpath demand, followed by a sequential processing of the lightpath demands. The performance and the scalability of both approaches are investigated. Results reveal great scalability properties of the global search algorithm, and a performance similar to or better than the sequential schemes.      

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.     

Virtual Topology Design and Reconfiguration of Virtual Private Networks (VPNs) over All-Optical WDM Networks

This paper studies the virtual topology design and reconfiguration problem of virtual private networks (VPNs) over all-optical WDM networks. To support VPN service, a set of lightpaths must be established over the underlying WDM network to meet the VPN traffic demands and this set of lightpaths must also be dynamically reconfigurable in response to changing VPN traffic. To achieve good network performance and meet the service requirements of optical virtual private networks (oVPNs), we formulate the problem as an integer programming problem with multi-objectives and present a general formulation of the problem. In the formulation, we take into account the average propagation delay over a lightpath, the maximum link load, and the reconfiguration cost with objectives to minimize the three metrics simultaneously. The formulated problem is NP-hard and is therefore not practical to have exact solutions. For this reason, we use heuristics to obtain approximate optimal solutions and propose a balanced alternate routing algorithm (BARA) based on a genetic algorithm. To make the problem computationally tractable, we approximately divide BARA into two independent stages: route computing and path routing. At the route computing stage, a set of alternate routes is computed for each pair of source and destination nodes in the physical topology. At the path routing stage, an optimal route is decided from a set of alternative routes for each of the lightpaths between a pair of source and destination nodes. A decision is subject to the constraints and objectives in the formulation. To improve the computational efficiency, we use a genetic algorithm in BARA. Through simulation experiments, we show the effectiveness of BARA and the evolution process of the best solution in a population of solutions produced by the genetic algorithm. We also investigate the impact of the number of alternative routes between each pair of source and destination nodes on the optimized solutions.     

Provisioning of dynamic traffic in mixed-line-rate optical networks with launch power determination

In mixed-line-rate (MLR) networks, different line rates on different wavelengths can coexist on the same fiber. MLR architectures can be built over transparent optical networks, where the transmitted signals remain in the optical domain along the entire path. Along the transparent optical path, a signal experiences various physical layer impairments (PLIs), and its quality degrades as it travels through each optical component. One of the major factors that affect the transmission quality is the launch power of the optical signal. The power must be large enough to ensure noise resiliency at the receiver, but it must be below the limit where fiber nonlinearities distort the signal. Moreover, high launch power is disruptive not only for the actual lightpath itself but also for neighboring lightpaths, and this effect is particularly critical in MLR networks since advanced modulation techniques used for high line rates are highly susceptible to PLIs. In this study, we investigate the problem of determining the appropriate launch power for provisioning of dynamic connection requests in MLR networks. By setting the appropriate launch power for each connection, we aim to maximize the number of established connections. We propose two different heuristics to determine the appropriate launch power of a lightpath. Worst-case best-case average (WBA) is based on optical reach of signal in a transparent optical network. In impairment-aware launch power determination (I-ALPD), current state of the network and impairments are evaluated to determine the launch power. The proposed approaches are practical and can adapt to the needs of network operators. Simulation results show that the performances of the proposed approaches show better results than the existing schemes in terms of blocking probability and bandwidth blocking ratio.     

A novel partition-plane impairment aware routing and spectrum assignment algorithm in mixed line rates elastic optical networks

In mixed line rates elastic optical networks, different line rate signals can coexist on the same fiber. As different line rates coexist in the same fiber, the impairments, especially the cross-phase modulation (XPM), become more and more serious affecting the quality of transmission of signals. Moreover, the spectrum constraints limit the efficient allocation of spectrum resources. In this paper, we propose a novel spectrum Partition-topology Plane impairments aware routing and spectrum assignment algorithm to set up lightpaths for connection requests, therefore decreasing the XPM impairments and increasing spectrum utilization. The proposed algorithm can satisfy the spectrum constraints restriction and avoid the XPM impairment together. The simulation results show that the proposed algorithm can significantly improve the performance of networks in blocking probability and the spectrum efficiency.     

Dynamic Routing and Wavelength Assignment in Optical Networks by Means of Genetic Algorithms

We propose a novel genetic algorithm for solving the dynamic routing and wavelength assignment (DRWA) problem in wavelength-routed optical networks. The algorithm not only obtains low call blocking probability, but it also employs a very short computation time. Moreover, it is capable of providing fairness among connections, that is, to offer approximately the same quality of service (in terms of blocking probability) for all source-destination node pairs. Since requirements on optical network availability are highly severe, we also propose an extension of the algorithm to provide fault-tolerance capability at the optical layer. It is achieved by means of protection, where each optical connection request is provided with a pair of lightpaths (a primary and a backup lightpath). Again, the genetic algorithm proves to be highly efficient, in this case, at performing routing and wavelength assignment of pairs of lightpaths.     

Offline Impairment-Aware Routing and Wavelength Assignment Algorithms in Translucent WDM Optical Networks

Physical impairments in optical fiber transmission necessitate the use of regeneration at certain intermediate nodes, at least for certain lengthy lightpaths. We design and implement impairment-aware algorithms for routing and wavelength assignment (IA-RWA) in translucent optical networks. We focus on the offline version of the problem, where we are given a network topology, the number of available wavelengths and a traffic matrix. The proposed algorithm selects the 3R regeneration sites and the number of regenerators that need to be deployed on these sites, solving the regenerator placement problem for the given set of requested connections. The problem can be also posed in a slightly different setting, where a (sparse) placement of regenerators in the network is given as input and the algorithm selects which of the available regenerators to use, solving the regenerator assignment problem. We formulate the problem of regenerator placement and regenerator assignment, as a virtual topology design problem, and address it using various algorithms, ranging from a series of integer linear programming (ILP) formulations to simple greedy heuristic algorithms. Once the sequence of regenerators to be used by the non-transparent connections has been determined, we transform the initial traffic matrix by replacing non-transparent connections with a sequence of transparent connections that terminate and begin at the specified 3R intermediate nodes. Using the transformed matrix we then apply an IA-RWA algorithm designed for transparent (as opposed to translucent) networks to route the traffic. Blocked connections are re-routed using any remaining regenerator(s) in the last phase of the algorithm.      

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.     

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     

Lightpath (wavelength) routing in large WDM networks

We address the problem of efficient circuit switching in wide area optical networks. The solution provided is based on finding optimal routes for lightpaths and the new concept of semilightpaths. A lightpath is a fully optical transmission path, while a semilightpath is a transmission path constructed by chaining together several lightpaths, using wavelength conversion at their junctions. A fast and practical algorithm is presented to optimally route lightpaths and semilightpaths taking into account both the cost of using the wavelengths on links and the cost of wavelength conversion. We prove that the running time of the algorithm is the best possible in the wide class of algorithms allowing linear algebraic operations on weights. This class encompasses all known related practical methods. Additionally, our method works for any physical realization of wavelength conversion, independently whether it is done via optoelectronic conversion or in a fully optical way     

Design of logical topologies for wavelength-routed optical networks

The problem of designing a logical topology over a wavelength-routed all-optical network (AON) physical topology is studied. The physical topology consists of the nodes and fiber links in the network. On an AON physical topology, we can set up lightpaths between pairs of nodes, where a lightpath represents a direct optical connection without any intermediate electronics. The set of lightpaths along with the nodes constitutes the logical topology. For a given network physical topology and traffic pattern, our objective is to design the logical topology and the routing algorithm so as to minimize the network congestion while constraining the average delay seen by a source-destination pair and the amount of processing required at the nodes (degree of the logical topology). Ignoring the delay constraints can result in fairly convoluted logical topologies with very long delays. On the other hand, in all our examples, imposing it results in a minimal increase in congestion. While the number of wavelengths required to imbed the resulting logical topology on the physical all optical topology is also a constraint in general, we find that in many cases of interest this number can be quite small. We formulate the combined logical topology design and routing problem described above as a mixed integer linear programming problem which we then solve for a number of cases of a six-node network. This programming problem is split into two subproblems: logical topology design, and routing. We then compare the performance of several heuristic topology design algorithms against that of randomly generated topologies, as well as lower bounds     

Two-stage cut saturation algorithm for designing all-opticalnetworks

We design and optimize the physical topology of all-optical networks. This problem is more challenging than the traditional one for electronic communication networks, because of the wavelength-continuous constraint and it involves routing and wavelength assignment. In this problem, we are given the number of lightpaths required by every node pair and a cost specification, and our objective is to determine a physical topology of minimal cost. We formulate the problem, prove that it is NP-hard, and design an efficient algorithm called two-stage cut saturation algorithm for it. In the first stage, we relax the wavelength-continuous constraint and apply the main idea of the cut saturation method to determine a good initial network. In the second stage, we impose the wavelength-continuous constraint and perform routing and wavelength assignment to establish the specified lightpaths on the initial network. When some lightpaths cannot be established, we apply the main idea of the cut saturation method to optimize the insertion of additional links into the network. Simulation results show the following: (1) the proposed algorithm can efficiently design networks with low costs and high utilization and (2) if wavelength converters are available to support full wavelength conversion, the total cost of the links can be significantly reduced     

Improved lightpath (wavelength) routing in large WDM networks

We address the problem of efficient circuit switching in wide area networks. The solution provided is based on finding optimal routes for lightpaths and semilightpaths. A lightpath is a fully optical transmission path, while a semilightpath is a transmission path constructed by chaining several lightpaths together, using wavelength conversion at their junctions. The problem thus is to find an optimal lightpath/semilightpath in the network in terms of the cost of wavelength conversion and the cost of using the wavelengths on links. In this paper, we first present an efficient algorithm for the problem which runs in time O(k²n+km+kn log(kn)), where n and m are the number of nodes and links in the network, and k is the number of wavelengths. We then analyze that the proposed algorithm requires O(d ²nk₀²+mk₀ log n) time for a restricted version of the problem in which the number of available wavelengths for each link is bounded by k₀ and k₀=o(n), where d is the maximum in-degree or out-degree of the network. It is surprising to have found that the time complexity for this case is independent of k. It must be mentioned that our algorithm can be implemented efficiently in the distributed computing environment. The distributed version requires O(kn) time and O(km) messages. Compared with a previous O(k²n+kn²) time algorithm, our algorithm has the following advantages. (1) We take into account the physical topology of the network which makes our algorithm outperform the previous algorithm. In particular, when k is small [e.g., k=O(log n)] and m=O(n), our algorithm runs in time O(n log² n), while the previous algorithm runs in time O(n log n). (2) Since our algorithm has high locality, it can be implemented on the network distributively     

Distributed optical control plane for dynamic lightpath establishment in translucent optical networks based on reachability graph

In transparent optical networks, physical layer impairments (PLIs) incurred by non-ideal optical transmission media accumulate along an optical path, and the overall effect determines the optical feasibility of the lightpaths. In addition, transparent optical networks suffer from inefficient wavelength utilization, as a connection request may be rejected because of non-availability of a common wavelength on all the links along the chosen route. To increase optical reach, resource utilization, and average call acceptance ratio (and hence revenues), network operators are resort to translucent optical networks. In these networks a limited number of regenerators are placed at a selected set of nodes. In this scenario development of an optical control plane which is aware of PLIs, location and number of regenerators, is of paramount importance for on-demand lightpath provisioning. In this paper, we propose a novel approach of constructing a reachability graph of the physical network considering PLIs and regenerators. If there is no transparent path in the physical network, we route the connections with multiple transparent segments on the reachability graph. We propose efficient mechanisms and corresponding GMPLS protocol extensions for impairment and regenerator aware routing and wavelength assignment (IRA-RWA) in translucent optical networks. The simulation results suggest that our proposed approach together with LSP stitching signaling mechanism is feasible to implement and close to deployment.     

A heuristic algorithm for lightpath scheduling in next-generation WDM optical networks

We study the routing and wavelength assignment (RWA) problem of scheduled lightpath demands (SLDs) in all-optical wavelength division multiplexing networks with no wavelength conversion capability. We consider the deterministic lightpath scheduling problem in which the whole set of lightpath demands is completely known in advance. The objective is to maximize the number of established lightpaths for a given number of wavelengths. Since this problem has been shown to be NP complete, various heuristic algorithms have been developed to solve it suboptimally. In this paper, we propose a novel heuristic RWA algorithm for SLDs based on the bee colony optimization (BCO) metaheuristic. BCO is a newborn swarm intelligence metaheuristic approach recently proposed to solve complex combinatorial optimization problems. We compare the efficiency of the proposed algorithm with three simple greedy algorithms for the same problem. Numerical results obtained by numerous simulations performed on the widely used realistic European Optical Network topology indicate that the proposed algorithm produces better-quality solutions compared to those obtained by greedy algorithms. In addition, we compare the results of the BCO–RWA–SLD algorithm with four other heuristic/metaheuristic algorithms proposed in literature to solve the RWA problem in the case of permanent (static) traffic demands.