The FT/sup /spl Lambda//-FR/sup /spl Lambda// AWG network: a practical single-hop metro WDM network for efficient uni- and multicasting

Single-hop wavelength-division-multiplexed (WDM) networks with a central passive star coupler (PSC), as well as single-hop networks with a central arrayed-waveguide grating (AWG) and a single transceiver at each node, have been extensively studied as solutions for the quickly increasing amounts of unicast and multicast traffic in the metropolitan area. The main bottlenecks of these networks are the lack of spatial wavelength reuse in the studied PSC-based networks and the single transceiver in the studied AWG-based metro WDM networks. This paper describes the development and evaluation of the FT/sup /spl Lambda//-FR/sup /spl Lambda// AWG network, which is based on a central AWG and has arrays of fixed-tuned transmitters and receivers at each node. Transceiver arrays are a mature technology, making the proposed network practical. In addition, the transmitter arrays allow for high-speed signaling over the AWG while the receiver arrays relieve the receiver bottleneck arising from multicasting in conjunction with spatial wavelength reuse on the AWG. The results from probabilistic analysis and simulation reported here indicate that the FT/sup /spl Lambda//-FR/sup /spl Lambda// AWG network gives particularly good throughput-delay performance for a mix of unicast and multicast traffic.     

Wavelength reuse for efficient packet-switched transport in an AWG-based metro WDM network

Metro wavelength-division multiplexed (WDM) networks play an important role in the emerging Internet hierarchy; they interconnect the backbone WDM networks and the local-access networks. The current circuit-switched SONET/synchronous digital hierarchy (SDH)-over-WDM-ring metro networks are expected to become a serious bottleneck-the so-called metro gap-as they are faced with an increasing amount of bursty packet data traffic and quickly increasing bandwidths in the backbone networks and access networks. Innovative metro WDM networks that are highly efficient and able to handle variable-size packets are needed to alleviate the metro gap. In this paper, we study an arrayed-waveguide grating (AWG)-based single-hop WDM metro network. We analyze the photonic switching of variable-size packets with spatial wavelength reuse. We derive computationally efficient and accurate expressions for the network throughput and delay. Our extensive numerical investigations-based on our analytical results and simulations-reveal that spatial wavelength reuse is crucial for efficient photonic packet switching. In typical scenarios, spatial wavelength reuse increases the throughput by 60% while reducing the delay by 40%. Also, the throughput of our AWG-based network with spatial wavelength reuse is roughly 70% larger than the throughput of a comparable single-hop WDM network based on a passive star coupler (PSC).     

The AWG/spl par/PSC network:a performance-enhanced single-hop WDM network with heterogeneous protection

Single-hop wavelength-division-multiplexing (WDM) networks based on a central passive star coupler (PSC) or arrayed-waveguide grating (AWG) hub have received a great deal of attention as promising solutions for the quickly increasing traffic in metropolitan and local area networks. These single-hop networks suffer from a single point of failure: if the central hub fails, then all network connectivity is lost. To address this single point of failure in an efficient manner, we propose a novel single-hop WDM network, the AWG/spl par/PSC network. The AWG/spl par/PSC network consists of an AWG in parallel with a PSC. The AWG and PSC provide heterogeneous protection for each other; the AWG/spl par/PSC network remains functional when either the AWG or the PSC fails. If both AWG and PSC are functional, the AWG/spl par/PSC network uniquely combines the respective strengths of the two devices. By means of analysis and verifying simulations we find that the throughput of the AWG/spl par/PSC network is significantly larger than the total throughput obtained by combining the throughput of a stand-alone AWG network with the throughput of a stand-alone PSC network. We also find that the AWG/spl par/PSC network gives over a wide operating range a better throughput-delay performance than a network consisting of either two load sharing PSCs in parallel or two load sharing AWGs in parallel.     

RINGOSTAR: an evolutionary AWG-based WDM upgrade of optical ring networks

The paper describes the study of the multichannel upgrade of IEEE Standard 802.17 Resilient Packet Ring (RPR) in particular and optical single-channel ring networks in general by making use of wavelength-division multiplexing (WDM). The paper describes and discusses a novel evolutionary multichannel upgrade approach that uses WDM on a central passive arrayed-waveguide grating (AWG)-based single-hop star network rather than on the ring. The AWG-based star subnetwork allows for a dramatically larger spatial reuse of WDM wavelength channels than conventional upgrades of optical single-channel ring networks that use WDM on the ring where all nodes need to be WDM upgraded. In the resultant hybrid optical ring-star network, termed RINGOSTAR, only a subset of the nodes are required to be WDM upgraded with a single additional tunable transceiver in order to improve the performance dramatically. The novel concept of proxy stripping is also introduced, which is used to route ring traffic on single-hop short cuts across the star subnetwork rather than the peripheral ring, resulting in a dramatically increased spatial reuse factor on the ring. By means of analysis, the performance of RINGOSTAR is investigated in terms of mean hop distance, spatial reuse, and capacity. The findings show that RINGOSTAR significantly outperforms unidirectional, bidirectional, and meshed WDM rings. Finally, the tradeoffs of RINGOSTAR are addressed.     

Comprehensive performance modeling and analysis of multicasting in optical networks

Multicasting is becoming increasingly important in today's networks. In optical networks, optical splitters facilitate the multicasting of optical signals. By eliminating the transmission of redundant traffic over certain links, multicasting can improve network performance. However, in a wavelength-division multiplexed (WDM) optical network, the lack of wavelength conversion necessitates the establishment of a single multicast circuit (light-tree) on a single wavelength. On the other hand, establishing several unicast connections (lightpaths) to satisfy a multicast request, while requiring more capacity, is less constrained in terms of wavelength assignment. The objective of the paper is to evaluate the tradeoff between capacity and wavelength continuity in the context of optical multicasting. To this end, we develop accurate analytical models with moderate complexity for computing the blocking probability of multicast requests realized using light-trees, lightpaths, and combinations of light-trees and lightpaths. Numerical results indicate that a suitable combination of light-trees and lightpaths performs best when no wavelength conversion is present.     

Allocation of light splitters in all-optical WDM networks with sparse light splitting capabilities

In all-optical WDM networks, splitters at branch nodes are used to realize multicast trees. The problem of selecting a subset of nodes to place the splitters such that certain performance measure is optimized is called the splitter placement problem. This paper studies the splitter placement problem in all-optical WDM networks in which a light-forest is used to realize a multicast connection. The goal is to place a given number of splitters in the network such that the average per link wavelength resource usage of multicast connections is minimized. An upper bound and a lower bound on the per link average wavelength resource usage are derived. Two splitter placement methods are proposed for this problem. The proposed splitter methods are shown to yield significant lower average wavelength resource usage than the random placement method. One of the methods is shown to produce near minimum average wavelength resource usage.     

Multidestination communication over tunable-receiver single-hop WDMnetworks

We address the issue of providing efficient mechanisms for multidestination communication over one class of lightwave wavelength division multiplexing (WDM) architectures, namely, single-hop networks with tunability provided only at the receiving side. We distinguish a number of multicast traffic types, we present a number of alternative broadcast/multicast time-division multiple-access (TDMA) schedules for each type, and we develop heuristics to obtain schedules that result in low average packet delay. One of our major contributions is the development of a suite of adaptive multicast protocols which are simple to implement, and have good performance under changing multicast traffic conditions     

AWG-based metro WDM networking

A plethora of metropolitan area wavelength-division multiplexing networks have been proposed and examined in recent years with the aim to alleviate the bandwidth bottleneck between increasingly higher-speed local/access networks and high-speed backbone networks. Many of the considered metropolitan area networks use the arrayed waveguide grating as an optical building block. As we review in this article, in ring, interconnected ring, and meshed metro WDM networks, the AWG is typically used to realize wavelength multiplexers, demultiplexers, or optical add-drop multiplexers without capitalizing on spatial wavelength reuse. By using the AWG as a wavelength router, highly efficient star metro WDM networks can be realized due to extensive spatial wavelength reuse. We give an overview of star metro WDM networks that are able to meet modular upgradability, transparency, flexibility, efficiency, reliability, and protection requirements of future metro networks. AWG-based star networks also enable an evolution path of ring networks toward highly efficient and fault-tolerant hybrid star-ring metro network solutions.     

A genetic algorithm-based methodology for optimizing multiservice convergence in a metro WDM network

We consider the multi-objective optimization of a multi-service arrayed-waveguide grating-based single-hop metro WDM network with the two conflicting objectives of maximizing throughput while minimizing delay. We develop and evaluate a genetic algorithm based methodology for finding the optimal throughput-delay tradeoff curve, the so-called Pareto-optimal frontier. Our methodology provides the network architecture (hardware) and the medium access control (MAC) protocol parameters that achieve the Pareto-optima in a computationally efficient manner. The numerical results obtained with our methodology provide the Pareto-optimal network planning and operation solutions for a wide range of traffic scenarios. The presented methodology is applicable to other networks with a similar throughput-delay tradeoff.     

A large-scale AWG-based single-hop WDM network using couplers with collision avoidance

Single-hop wavelength division multiplexing (WDM) networks based on a central arrayed waveguide grating (AWG) have attracted a great deal of attention as a solution for metropolitan area network applications because they can achieve high throughput with reduced cost due to the periodic wavelength-routing property of the AWG. Unfortunately, scalability is a significant problem in an AWG-based single-hop WDM network because the number of transceivers required at each node is equal to the total number of nodes. This problem can be solved by providing optical couplers between the AWG and the nodes and by aggregating multiple nodes before connecting to the AWG. In this case, however, packet collisions at the couplers will seriously increase the packet network delay. Therefore, we propose a novel AWG-based single-hop WDM network in which an autonomic collision avoidance mechanism is introduced in the couplers. We derive the optimum number of couplers for this architecture. Through numerical study, we clarify that the proposed network architecture can reduce the total network cost dramatically.     

Optimal Multicasting of Multiple Light-Trees of Different Bandwidth Granularities in a WDM Mesh Network With Sparse Splitting Capabilities

With the advent of next-generation, bandwidth-intensive multimedia applications such as HDTV, interactive distance learning, and movie broadcasts from studios, it is becoming imperative to exploit the enormous bandwidth promised by the rapidly growing wavelength-division-multiplexing (WDM) technology. These applications require multicasting of information from a source to several destination nodes which should be performed judiciously to conserve expensive network resources. In this study, we investigate two switch architectures to support multicasting in a WDM network: one using an opaque (optical-electronic-optical approach and the other using a transparent (all-optical) approach. For both these switch architectures, we present mathematical formulations for routing and wavelength assignment of several light-tree-based multicast sessions on a given network topology at a globally optimal cost. We expand our work to also accommodate: 1) fractional-capacity sessions (where a session's capacity is a fraction of a wavelength channel's bandwidth, thereby leading to “traffic-groomed” multicast sessions) and 2) sparse splitting constraints, i.e., limited fanout of optical splitters and limited number of such splitters at each node. We illustrate the solutions obtained on different networks by solving these optimization problems, which turn out to be mixed integer linear programs (MILPs). Because the MILP is computationally intensive and does not scale well for large problem sizes, we also propose fast heuristics for establishing a set of multicast sessions in a network with or without wavelength converters and with fractional-capacity sessions. We find that, for all scenarios, the heuristics which arrange the sessions in ascending order with respect to destination set size and/or cost perform better in terms of network resource usage than the heuristics which arrange the sessions in descending order.     

Multicast Capacity of Packet-Switched Ring WDM Networks

Packet-switched unidirectional and bidirectional ring wavelength division multiplexing (WDM) networks with destination stripping provide an increased capacity due to spatial wavelength reuse. Besides unicast traffic, future destination stripping ring WDM networks also need to support multicast traffic efficiently. This article examines the largest achievable transmitter throughput, receiver throughput, and multicast throughput of both unidirectional and bidirectional ring WDM networks with destination stripping. A probabilistic analysis evaluates both the nominal capacity, which is based on the mean hop distances traveled by the multicast packet copies, and the effective capacity, which is based on the ring segment with the highest utilization probability, for each of the three throughput metrics. The developed analytical methodology accommodates not only multicast traffic with arbitrary multicast fanout but also unicast and broadcast traffic. Numerical investigations compare the nominal transmission, receiver, and multicast capacities with the effective transmission, receiver, and multicast capacities and examine the impact of number of ring nodes and multicast fanout on the effective transmission, reception, and multicast capacity of both types of ring networks for different unicast, multicast, and broadcast traffic scenarios and different mixes of unicast and multicast traffic. The presented analytical methodology enables the evaluation and comparison of future multicast-capable medium access control (MAC) protocols for unidirectional and bidirectional ring WDM networks in terms of transmitter, receiver, and multicast throughput efficiency.     

Multicasting on translucent multicast capable WDM mesh networks

As multicast applications becoming widely popular, supporting multicast in wavelength division multiplexing (WDM) networks is an important issue. Currently, there are two schemes to support multicast in WDM networks. One scheme is opaque multicasting which replicate bit stream in electronic domain. And the other is transparent multicasting which replicate bit stream all optically by a light splitter. However, both of two schemes have drawbacks or difficulties. This paper investigates an alternate translucent multicasting scheme, in which a fraction of branch nodes replicate bit stream at electronic domain and the other branch nodes replicate bit stream all optically. Replicating bit stream at electronic domain will introduce electronic processing overhead and extra delay. To satisfy the delay requirement of multicast session, the maximum number of electronic hops of a multicast tree must be less than an upper bound. In this paper, a hop-constrained multicast routing heuristic algorithm called shortest path based hop-constrained multicast routing (SPHMR) is proposed. A series of simulations are conducted to evaluate the effectiveness of translucent multicasting scheme. Simulation results show that the translucent multicasting scheme achieve a good compromise between network performance and network cost as well as power losses caused by light splitting.     

Performance of Single-Hop WDM LANs Supporting Real-Time Services

Optical wavelength division multiplexing (WDM) local area networks are capable of fulfilling the enormous bandwidth demands of present and future applications. Up to now, the WDM LAN world is primarily dominated by the passive-star coupler (PSC) based architectures, for which many medium access control (MAC) protocols have been proposed. However, an arrayed waveguide grating multiplexer (AWGM)-based single-hop WDM network seems to be a very promising alternative. One of the most critical issues in designing next generation photonic LANs is the support of real-time services for applications with different time constraints. In this paper, different basic access protocols for the PSC as well as AWGM-based single-hop WDM LANs are considered and their performance in supporting real-time traffic is analyzed by means of extensive computer simulations. For evaluation of real-time performance, packet drop rates and deadline missing rates are taken as performance measures. Furthermore, new real-time message scheduling schemes are proposed which improve the performance of protocols accommodating mixed traffic. They can be differentiated between message scheduling at the source nodes transmit queues and scheduling based upon control information from a control channel. It is shown that both types of priority scheduling significantly improve the overall real-time performance.     

Metro WDM networks: performance comparison of slotted ring and AWG star networks

Both wavelength-division-multiplexing (WDM) networks with a ring architecture and WDM networks with a star architecture have been extensively studied as solutions to the ever increasing amount of traffic in the metropolitan area. Studies typically focus on either the ring or the star and significant advances have been made in the protocol design and performance optimization for the WDM ring and the WDM star, respectively. However, very little is known about the relative performance comparisons of ring and star networks. In this paper, we conduct a comprehensive comparison of a state-of-the-art WDM ring network with a state-of-the-art WDM star network. In particular, we compare time-slotted WDM ring networks (both single-fiber and dual-fiber) with tunable-transmitter and fixed-receiver (TT-FR) nodes and an arrayed-waveguide grating-based single-hop star network with tunable-transmitter and tunable-receiver (TT-TR) nodes. We evaluate mean aggregate throughput, relative packet loss, and mean delay by means of simulation for Bernoulli and self-similar traffic models for unicast traffic with uniform and hot-spot traffic matrices, as well as for multicast traffic. Our results quantify the fundamental performance characteristics of ring networks versus star networks and vice versa, as well as their respective performance limiting bottlenecks and, thus, provide guidance for directing future research efforts.     

Layered-routing approach for solving multicast routing and wavelength assignment problem

We have developed a new layered-routing approach to address the problem of all-optical multicast over wavelength-routed wavelength division multiplexing (WDM) networks. We model the WDM network as a collection of wavelength layers with sparse light- splitting (LS) and wavelength conversion (WC) capabilities. We apply the degree constraint technique to solve the problem. The approach is capable of completing multicast routing and wavelength assignment (MCRWA) in one step. We propose two generic frameworks to facilitate heuristic development. Any heuristic that is derived from either Prim’s or Kruskal’s algorithm can be easily imported to solve the MCRWA problem. One example is given for each framework to demonstrate heuristic development. Extensive simulations were carried out to measure the performance of heuristics developed from the frameworks. The results show that the STRIGENT scheme is suitable for hardware design and it is advisable to deploy light splitters and wavelength converters to the same node for better performance.     

Multicast with a new switching structure in optical networks

The emergence of new services demands for a multicast function in optical networks. At the same time, wavelength converters are introduced to increase the efficiency of wavelength usage. It is because of the high cost and complex architecture of optical multicast and wavelength conversion technology, that a new switch structure is introduced, in which optical splitters and wavelength converters are shared per-node. In order to accommodate this architecture, a multicast routing and wavelength assignment algorithm in a splitter–converter-sharing optical network and a changing link weight policy to balance network traffic are proposed. By extending RSVP-TE (Resource ReSerVation Protocol-Traffic Engineering) and OSPF-TE (Open Shortest Path First-Traffic Engineering), an optical multicast mechanism is provided, and message type, signaling flow, and finite state machine model are given. Simulations of NSFNET show that, when the number of splitters and converters are 50% and 12.5% of the full equipment respectively, the performance is close to the ideal case. Using a changing link weight policy can improve performance greatly, when there are enough splitters and converters.     

Wavelength-Conversion-Based Protocols for Single-Hop Photonic Networks with Bursty Traffic

WDM star networks using fixed lasers and tunable optical filters are favored by the current state-of-the-art in technology over the other WDM star architectural forms. However, networks of this architectural form suffer from low efficiency when the offered traffic is bursty. Under bursty traffic conditions, it is probable that some wavelengths are idle, while some other wavelengths are overloaded. Therefore, the overall network performance is degraded. In this paper, a new MAC protocol which is capable of operating efficiently under bursty traffic conditions is introduced. According to the proposed protocol an array of tunable wavelength converters is placed at the network hub in order to uniformly distribute the incoming packets to the available wavelengths. In this way, the load is balanced between the wavelengths and consequently, the network performance is improved. The performance of the proposed protocol is studied via analytical and simulation results which indicate that a WDM Star network operating under this protocol achieves a high throughput-delay performance under both bursty and non-bursty traffic conditions.     

Online multicasting in WDM networks with shared light splitter bank

We study online multicasting in WDM networks with shared light splitter bank. Our objective is either to maximize the network throughput or to minimize the blocking probability. Due to the nature of dynamic requesting for network resources by online multicast requests, the network usually is unable to allocate the resources needed for each request in advance. Instead, it either accepts the request by building an economic multicast tree for the request, in terms of the utilization of the network resources if it has sufficient resources available, or rejects the request, otherwise. It is desirable that the cost of realizing each multicast request be minimized, and the network throughput will be maximized ultimately through the cost saving on each individual request. Since optical light splitting and wavelength conversion switching in optical networks is cost expensive and its fabrication is difficult, it is assumed that only a limited number of light splitters and wavelength converters are installed at a node, which will be shared by all the incoming signals at the node. In addition, it is further assumed that only a fraction of nodes in the network are installed with such optical switches. In this article we first propose a cost model for realizing an online multicast request under such network environments with limited light splitters and wavelength converters, which models the cost of utilization of network resources, particularly in modeling the light splitting and wavelength conversion ability at nodes. We then show that finding a cost-optimal multicast tree for a multicast request under the proposed cost model is NP-complete, and instead devise approximation and heuristic algorithms for it. We finally conduct experiments to evaluate the performance of the proposed algorithms. The results show that the proposed algorithms are efficient and effective in terms of network throughput.

A cost effective approach for survivable multicast traffic grooming in bidirectional multiwavelength ring networks

In this paper, we address the problem of survivable multicast traffic grooming in WDM bidirectional ring networks. The rapid growth of multicast applications such as video conferencing, distance learning, and online auction, has initiated the need for cost-effective solutions to realize multicasting in WDM optical networks. Many of these applications, being time critical and delay sensitive, demand robust and fault-tolerant means of data communication. The end user traffic demands in metro environment are in fractional bandwidth as compared to the wavelength channel capacity. Providing survivability at connection level is resource intensive. Hence cost-effective solutions that require minimum resources for realizing survivable multicasting are in great demand. In order to realize multicast traffic grooming in bidirectional ring networks, we propose a node architecture based on Bidirectional Add Drop Multiplexers (BADM) to support bidirectional add/drop functionality along with traffic duplication at each node. We also propose two traffic grooming algorithms, namely Survivable Grooming with Maximum Overlap of Sessions (SGMOS) and Survivable Grooming with Rerouting of Sessions (SGRS). Extensive simulation studies reveal that the proposed algorithms consume minimum resources measured in terms of BADM grooming ports, backup cost, and wavelengths.