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.     

Hypo-Steiner heuristic for multicast routing in all-optical WDM mesh networks

In sparse light splitting all-optical WDM networks, the more destinations a light-tree can accommodate, the fewer light-trees and wavelengths a multicast session will require. In this article, a Hypo-Steiner light-tree algorithm (HSLT) is proposed to construct a HSLT light-tree to include as many destinations as possible. The upper bound cost of the light-trees built by HSLT is given as N(N − 1)/2, where N is the number of nodes in the network. The analytical model proves that, under the same condition, more destinations could be held in a HSLT than a Member-Only (Zhang et al., J. Lightware Technol, 18(12), 1917–1927 2000.) light-tree. Extensive simulations not only validate the proof but also show that the proposed heuristic outperforms the existing multicast routing algorithms by a large margin in terms of link stress, throughput, and efficiency of wavelength usage.     

A Novel Shared Segment Protection Algorithm for Multicast Sessions in Mesh WDM Networks

This paper investigates the problem of protecting multicast sessions in mesh wavelength‐division multiplexing (WDM) networks against single link failures, for example, a fiber cut in optical networks. First, we study the two characteristics of multicast sessions in mesh WDM networks with sparse light splitter configuration. Traditionally, a multicast tree does not contain any circles, and the first characteristic is that a multicast tree has better performance if it contains some circles. Note that a multicast tree has several branches. If a path is added between the leave nodes on different branches, the segment between them on the multicast tree is protected. Based the two characteristics, the survivable multicast sessions routing problem is formulated into an Integer Linear Programming (ILP). Then, a heuristic algorithm, named the adaptive shared segment protection (ASSP) algorithm, is proposed for multicast sessions. The ASSP algorithm need not previously identify the segments for a multicast tree. The segments are determined during the algorithm process. Comparisons are made between the ASSP and two other reported schemes, link disjoint trees (LDT) and shared disjoint paths (SDP), in terms of blocking probability and resource cost on CERNET and USNET topologies. Simulations show that the ASSP algorithm has better performance than other existing schemes.     

WDM格型光网络中的动态组播共享保护算法

该文针对WDM格型网络中单链路失效的情况,提出了一种保护动态组播业务的基于路径的优化共享保护(PB-OSPM)算法。该算法在基于最优路径对的共享不相交路径(OPP-SDP)算法的基础上,通过引入保护波长使用情况矩阵和波长预留矩阵记录预留波长资源的使用情况,允许不发生冲突的不同组播的保护路径间共享预留波长资源。研究采用欧洲光网络(EON)的拓扑对PB-OSPM算法和OPP-SDP算法在增性网络负载情况下的网络冗余度和同波长资源配置和网络负载情况下动态网络负载的网络连接阻塞率做了仿真。结果表明,相同条件下,PB-OSPM算法比OPP-SDP算法有更低的连接阻塞率。组播业务间波长资源的共享是提高波长资源利用率的有效方法。     

WDM光网络中基于链路的动态组播共享保护算法

针对WDM光网络中单链路失效的情况,提出了一种基于链路的保护动态组播业务的优化共享保护算法(Link-based optimized shared-protection algorithm for multicast sessions,LB-OSPM).该算法在对工作树任意光纤链路失效情况寻找保护路径时,允许组播内不同保护路径共享预留波长资源,同时通过引入预留波长使用情况矩阵和波长预留矩阵记录预留波长资源的使用情况,实现了不发生冲突的不同组播的保护链路间共享预留波长资源.研究采用欧洲光网络(European Optical Network,EON)的拓扑对不同波长资源配置和网络负载情况下LB-OSPM算法的网络连接阻塞率做了仿真.结果表明,通过引入共享机制,LB-OSPM算法在对单链路失效保证100％恢复率的同时可以获得更低的连接阻塞率,提高了波长资源利用效率.     

Constrained light-tree design for WDM mesh networks with multicast traffic grooming

Multicast applications such as IPTV, video conferencing, telemedicine and online multiplayer gaming are expected to be major drivers of Internet traffic growth. The disparity between the bandwidth offered by a wavelength and the bandwidth requirement of a multicast connection can be tackled by grooming multiple low bandwidth multicast connections into a high bandwidth wavelength channel or light-tree. Light-trees are known to be especially suited for networks that carry ample multicast traffic. In this paper, we propose new algorithms to address the problem of multicast traffic grooming. In particular, an Integer Linear Programming (ILP) formulation is proposed for optimal assignments of hop constrained light-trees for multicast connections so that network throughput can be maximized. Hop constrained light-trees improve the scalability of the approach by reducing the search space of the ILP formulation. Since solving the ILP problem is very time consuming for realistically large networks, we are motivated to propose a heuristic algorithm with a polynomial complexity, called Dividable Light-Tree Grooming (DLTG) algorithm. This algorithm is based on grooming traffic to constrained light-trees and also divides a light-tree to smaller constrained light-trees on which traffic is groomed for better resource utilization. Simulations show that the proposed DLTG heuristic performs better than other algorithms. It achieves network throughputs which are very close to the ILP formulation results, but with far lower running times.     

Multicast wavelength assignment with sparse wavelength converters to maximize the network capacity using ILP formulation in WDM mesh networks

In general, multicast routing and wavelength assignment (MC-RWA) can be subdivided in routing and wavelength assignment issues in wavelength-division multiplexing (WDM) mesh networks. Previous studies on WDM multicast have mainly focused on WDM multicast routing. The multicast wavelength assignment problem is studied in this paper. A unicast routing path can be established by a lightpath in an all-optical network. However, in the multicasting case, a multicast routing tree can be established by a single light-tree or several lightpaths, or a combination of several light-trees and lightpaths. We propose a wavelength assignment algorithm for finding an optimal combination of lightpaths and light-trees to construct a newly required multicast session. First of all, two cost functions are given to evaluate the establishing cost for each feasible wavelength, and then find a set of wavelengths that covers all destinations with the minimal cost using Integer Linear Programming (ILP) formulation. We focus on maximizing the total number of users served in a multicast session and the network capacity. The simulation results show that the proposed algorithm can improve system resource utilization and reduce the blocking probability compared with the First-Fit algorithm.This research was partially supported by the Grant of National Science Council, R.O.C. (NSC 94-2745-E-155-007-URD).     

QoS-driven multicast routing in sparse-splitting optical networks

This paper investigates the quality-of-service (QoS)-driven multicast routing problem in a sparse-splitting optical network. The main objective is to minimize the total cost of wavelength channels utilized by the light-tree while satisfying required QoS parameters. In this paper, both the optical-layer constraints (e.g., optical signal power) and application-layer requirements (e.g., end-to-end delay and inter-destination delay variation) are considered as the QoS parameters. First, integer linear programming (ILP) formulations to solve the optimal multicast routing problem with the given QoS parameters are presented. Solving the ILP formulations for large-scale networks can easily overwhelm the capabilities of state-of-the-art computing facilities, and hence, a heuristic algorithm is proposed to construct a feasible light-tree that satisfies the required QoS parameters in large-scale networks. Simulation results demonstrate the performance of the proposed heuristic algorithm in terms of the cost of utilized wavelength channels.     

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.     

WDM网状网络中一种动态多播自适应业务疏导算法

光多播业务需要消耗大量的WDM光网络带宽资源,业务疏导是光多播网络降低业务请求阻塞率和提高带宽资源利用率的有效方法。提出了一种新型光多播疏导节点结构,研究了疏导端口优先的多播业务疏导算法(TGPFA)和新建光树优先的多播业务疏导算法(TCLFA),进而提出了一种能够适应网络资源变化的动态多播业务疏导算法(ADMGA)。结果表明,在网络资源有限的情况下,ADMGA算法能取得较低的请求阻塞率和带宽阻塞率,获得较好的网络性能。     

Avoidance of multicast incapable branching nodes for multicast routing in WDM networks

In this article we study the multicast routing problem in all-optical WDM networks under the spare light splitting constraint. To implement a multicast session, several light-trees may have to be used due to the limited fanouts of network nodes. Although many multicast routing algorithms have been proposed in order to reduce the total number of wavelength channels used (total cost) for a multicast session, the maximum number of wavelengths required in one fiber link (link stress) and the end-to-end delay are two parameters which are not always taken into consideration. It is known that the shortest path tree (SPT) results in the optimal end-to-end delay, but it can not be employed directly for multicast routing in sparse light splitting WDM networks. Hence, we propose a novel wavelength routing algorithm which tries to avoid the multicast incapable branching nodes (MIBs, branching nodes without splitting capability) in the shortest-path-based multicast tree to diminish the link stress. Good parts of the shortest-path-tree are retained by the algorithm to reduce the end-to-end delay. The algorithm consists of tree steps: (1) a DijkstraPro algorithm with priority assignment and node adoption is introduced to produce a SPT with up to 38% fewer MIB nodes in the NSF topology and 46% fewer MIB nodes in the USA Longhaul topology, (2) critical articulation and deepest branch heuristics are used to process the MIB nodes, (3) a distance-based light-tree reconnection algorithm is proposed to create the multicast light-trees. Extensive simulations demonstrate the algorithm’s efficiency in terms of link stress and end-to-end delay.     

Performance analysis of multicast routing and wavelength assignment protocol with dynamic traffic grooming in WDM networks

The need for on‐demand provisioning of wavelength‐routed channels with service‐differentiated offerings within the transport layer has become more essential because of the recent emergence of high bit rate Internet protocol (IP) network applications. Diverse optical transport network architectures have been proposed to achieve the above requirements. This approach is determined by fundamental advances in wavelength division multiplexing (WDM) technologies. Because of the availability of ultra long‐reach transport and all‐optical switching, the deployment of all‐optical networks has been made possible. The concurrent transmission of multiple streams of data with the assistance of special properties of fiber optics is called WDM. The WDM network provides the capability of transferring huge amounts of data at high speeds by the users over large distances. There are several network applications that require the support of QoS multicast, such as multimedia conferencing systems, video‐on‐demand systems, real‐time control systems, etc. In a WDM network, the route decision and wavelength assignment of lightpath connections are based mainly on the routing and wavelength assignment (RWA). The multicast RWA's task is to maximize the number of multicast groups admitted or minimize the call‐blocking probability. The dynamic traffic‐grooming problem in wavelength‐routed networks is generally a two‐layered routing problem in which traffic connections are routed over lightpaths in the virtual topology layer and lightpaths are routed over physical links in the physical topology layer. In this paper, a multicast RWA protocol for capacity improvement in WDM networks is designed. In the wavelength assignment technique, paths from the source node to each of the destination nodes and the potential paths are divided into fragments by the junction nodes and these junction nodes have the wavelength conversion capability. By using the concept of fragmentation and grouping, the proposed scheme can be generally applied for the wavelength assignment of multicast in WDM networks. An optimized dynamic traffic grooming algorithm is also developed to address the traffic grooming problem in mesh networks in the multicast scenario for maximizing the resource utilization and minimizing the blocking probability. Copyright © 2011 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Wavelength assignment for multicast in all-optical WDM networks with splitting constraints

Multicast is an important application in all-optical WDM networks. The wavelength assignment problem for WDM multicast is to assign a set of wavelengths to the links of a given multicast tree. In an all-optical WDM network without wavelength conversions, wavelength assignment is the key to guarantee the quality of service and to reduce communication costs. In this paper, we study wavelength assignment for WDM multicast with two criteria, to cover the maximum number of destinations, and to minimize the wavelength costs. The computational complexity of the problem is studied. Three heuristic algorithms are proposed and the worst-case approximation ratios for some heuristic algorithms are given. We also derive a lower bound of the minimum total wavelength cost and an upper bound of the maximum number of reached destinations. The efficiency of the proposed heuristic algorithms and the effectiveness of the derived bounds are verified by the simulation results.     

Performance assessment of multicast node placement for multicast routing in WDM networks with sparse light splitting

This article examines all-optical multicast routing for wavelength-routed optical networks with sparse Multicast Capable (MC) nodes in two phases. The first phase is MC node placement and use of a simple and straightforward Maximum Path Count First (MPCF) algorithm to obtain candidates for MC nodes. The second phase is multicast routing with MC-based schemes that minimizes the number of wavelength channels with minimum transmission delay as required by a given multicast session, in that a light-tree is first constructed to connect MC nodes in a multicast group by using two algorithms, namely, the Pre-computing Minimum Cost (PMC) tree algorithm and the Pre-computing Shortest Path (PSP) tree algorithm. System performance of the proposed MPCF MC node placement algorithm is compared with that of the Normalized Cuts (NC) MC node placement algorithm for both PMC and PSP multicast routing. Furthermore, simulation results compare PMC and PSP multicast routing based on MPCF and NC node placement with Re-route-to-Source (RTS), Re-route-to-Any (RTA), Member-First (MF), and Member-Only (MO) multicast routing based on a light forest for a given multicast session in terms of average number of wavelengths needed, average blocking probability, and mean maximum transmission delay.

Multicast protection scheme based on Hamiltonian cycle in fault-tolerant optical mesh networks

The increase of multimedia service requirements results in the growing popularity of the multicast in Wavelength-Division Multiplexing (WDM) optical mesh networks. Multicast fault tolerance in WDM optical mesh networks is an important issue because failures caused by the traffic carried in WDM optical mesh networks may lead to huge data loss. Previous works have proposed multicast protection algorithms to address the single-fiber link failure dominant in current optical mesh networks. However, these existing algorithms are all mainly based on path protection or segment protection, which may lead to long restoration times and complicated protection switching procedures. This paper therefore proposes a new heuristic algorithm, called Enhanced Multicast Hamiltonian Cycle Protection (EMHCP), in which all working light-trees of multicast demands can be protected by a Hamiltonian cycle in the network. For each multicast demand, EMHCP computes a least-cost light-tree based on the presented link-cost function that considers load balancing and proper straddling link selection so that backup wavelengths on the Hamiltonian cycle can be reduced. Simulation results show that EMHCP can obtain significant performance improvement compared with the conventional algorithm.     

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 routing and wavelength assignment with delay constraint in WDM networks with sparse wavelength conversions

With the developments in multimedia and other real-time group applications, the question of how to establish multicast trees satisfying Quality-of-Service (QoS) requirements is becoming a very important problem. In this paper, multicast routing and wavelength assignment with delay constraint (MCRWA-DC) in wavelength division multiplexing (WDM) networks with sparse wavelength conversions is studied. We propose a colored multigraph model for the temporarily available wavelengths. Based on this colored multigraph model, two heuristic algorithms are proposed to solve the MCRWA-DC problem. The proposed algorithms have the following advantages:(1) finish multicast routing and wavelength assignment in one step; (2) the total cost of the multicast tree is low; (3) the delay from the source node to any multicast destination node is bounded; and (4) locally minimize the number of wavelength conversions and the number of different wavelengths used to satisfy a multicast request. Simulation results show that the proposed algorithms work well and achieve satisfactory blocking probability.     

Algorithms for multicast traffic grooming in WDM mesh networks

Several of the new applications in high-performance networks are of the multicast traffic type. Since such networks employ an optical network infrastructure, and since most of these applications require subwavelength bandwidth, several streams are usually groomed on the same wavelength. This article presents an account of recent advances in the design of optical networks for multicast traffic grooming in WDM mesh networks. The article addresses network design and session provisioning under both static and dynamic multicast traffic. Under static traffic conditions, the objective is to accommodate a given set of multicast traffic demands, while minimizing the implementation cost. Optimal and heuristic solution techniques for mesh network topologies are presented. Under dynamic traffic conditions, techniques for dynamic routing and session provisioning of multicast sessions whose objective is to minimize session blocking probabilities are explained. The article also presents a number of open research issues     

Hybrid graph-based multicast traffic grooming in metro networks with quality-of-transmission considerations

This paper investigates the problem of multicast traffic grooming in optical networks utilizing a novel grooming approach that is based on the routing/grooming of multicast calls on hybrid graphs (HGs). HGs are constructed dynamically upon the arrival of each multicast call, in such a way that they consist of both the available physical links and the logical links with available capacity. Several schemes were developed for the construction of the HGs, namely the minimum free capacity light-tree first, the maximum free capacity light-tree first, the maximum overlapping light-tree first, the least-used light-tree first, and the most-used light-tree first scheme. Also, a novel hybrid Steiner tree heuristic for routing/grooming on the HGs is presented. The proposed grooming approach exhibits improved performance in terms of blocking probability compared to existing multicast grooming approaches that route/groom multicast calls by considering physical and logical links separately. Furthermore, the physical layer impairments were also considered during the provisioning phase of the newly established light-trees on the HG, in which case the proposed schemes also exhibit improved performance compared to other grooming approaches.     

Link-State-Based Algorithms for Dynamic Routing in All-Optical Networks with Ring Topologies

The increased usage of large bandwidth in optical networks raises the problems of efficient routing to allow these networks to deliver fast data transmission with low blocking probabilities. Due to limited optical buffering in optical switches and constraints of high switching speeds, data transmitted over optical networks must be routed without waiting queues along a path from source to destination. Moreover, in optical networks deprived of wavelength converters, it is necessary for each established path to transfer data from source to destination by using only one wavelength. To solve this NP-hard problem, many algorithms have been proposed for dynamic optical routing like Fixed-Paths Least Congested (FPLC) routing or Least Loaded Path Routing (LLR). This paper proposes two heuristic algorithms based on former algorithms to improve network throughput and reduce blocking probabilities of data transmitted in all-optical networks with regard to connection costs. We also introduce new criteria to estimate network congestion and choose better routing paths. Experimental results in ring networks show that both new algorithms achieve promising performance.