A Bandwidth Guaranteed Integrated Routing Algorithm in IP over WDM Optical Networks

In this paper, we have developed an integrated online algorithm for dynamic routing of bandwidth guaranteed label switched paths (LSPs) in IP-over-WDM optical networks. Traditionally, routing at an upper layer (e.g., IP layer) is independent of wavelength routing at the optical layer. Wavelength routing at the optical layer sets up a quasi-static logical topology which is then used at the IP layer for IP routing. The coarse-grain wavelength channels and the pre-determined virtual topologies with respect to some a priori assumed traffic distribution are barriers to efficient resource use and inflexible to changing traffic. We take into account the combined knowledge of resource and topology information at both IP and optical layers. With this added knowledge, an integrated routing approach may extract better network efficiencies, be more robust to changing traffic patterns at the IP layer than schemes that either use dynamic routing information at the IP layer or use a static wavelength topology only. LSP set-up requests are represented in terms of a pair of ingress and egress routers as well as its bandwidth requirement, and arrive one-by-one. There is no a priori knowledge regarding the arrivals and characteristics of future LSP set-up requests. Our proposed algorithm considers not only the importance of critical links, but also their relative importance to routing potential future LSP set-up requests by characterizing their normalized bandwidth contribution to routing future LSP requests with bandwidth requirements. Moreover, link residual bandwidth information that captures the link's capability of routing future LSPs is also incorporated into route calculation. Extensive simulation was conducted to study the performance of our proposed algorithm and to compare it with some existing ones, such as the integrated minimum hop routing algorithm and the maximum open capacity routing algorithm. Simulation results show that our proposed algorithm performs better than both routing algorithms in terms of the number of LSP set-up requests rejected and the total available bandwidth between router pairs.     

Protection Schemes for IP-over-WDM Networks: Throughput and Recovery Time Comparison

This article presents a novel protection approach using Generalized Multi-Protocol Label Switching (GMPLS). This strategy provides protection at the Wavelength Division Multiplexing (WDM) layer, meaning that all Internet Protocol Label-Switched Path (IP LSPs) nested inside a lightpath are protected in an aggregated way. It uses resources efficiently since spare capacity of working primary lightpaths can be used for backup purposes whenever necessary. The IP and WDM layers are treated together as a single integrated network from a control plane point of view, so that network state information from both layers can be used. Besides discussing the strategy proposed and the key features of GMPLS that will allow its implementation, we mathematically formulate the maximum throughput problem. Thereafter, we propose and compare heuristic algorithms for IP-over-WDM networks using three protection approaches: WDM lightpath protection, IP LSP protection, and the proposed protection scheme. Their throughputs and recovery times are analyzed and compared. Our results show that, for a representative mesh network, the proposed aggregated protection scheme presents better protection efficiency and good scalability properties when compared with the other two schemes.     

Efficient Distributed Bandwidth Management for MPLS Fast Reroute

As service providers move more applications to their IP/MPLS (multiple protocol label switching ) backbone networks, rapid restoration upon failure becomes more and more crucial. Recently MPLS fast reroute has attracted lots of attention as it was designed to meet the needs of real-time applications, such as voice over IP. MPLS fast reroute achieves rapid restoration by computing and signaling backup label switched path (LSP) tunnels in advance and re-directing traffic as close to failure point as possible. To provide a guarantee of bandwidth protection, extra bandwidth has to be reserved on backup paths. Using path merging technique as described in IETF RFC 4090 only, the network is able to share some bandwidth on common links among backup paths of the same service LSP, i.e., so-called intra-sharing. But no solution is provided on how to share bandwidth among backup paths of different service LSPs, i.e., so-called inter-sharing. In this paper, we provide an efficient distributed bandwidth management solution. This solution allows bandwidth sharing among backup paths of the same and different service LSPs, i.e., both intra-sharing and inter-sharing, with a guarantee of bandwidth protection for any single node/link failure. We also propose an efficient algorithm for backup path selection with the associated signaling extensions for additional information distribution and collection. To evaluate our schemes, we compare them via simulation with the basic MPLS fast reroute proposal, IETF RFC 4090, on two networks. Our simulation results show that using our bandwidth management scheme can significantly reduce restoration overbuild from about 250% to about 100%, and our optimized backup path selection can further reduce restoration overbuild to about 60%.     

Fault management in IP-over-WDM networks: WDM protection versus IPrestoration

We consider an IP-over-WDM network in which network nodes employ optical crossconnects and IP routers. Nodes are connected by fibers to form a mesh topology. Any two IP routers in this network can be connected together by an all-optical wavelength-division multiplexing (WDM) channel, called a lightpath, and the collection of lightpaths that are set up form a virtual topology. In this paper, we concentrate on single fiber failures, since they are the predominant form of failures in optical networks. Since each lightpath is expected to operate at a rate of few gigabits per second, a fiber failure can cause a significant loss of bandwidth and revenue. Thus, the network designer must provide a fault-management technique that combats fiber failures. We consider two fault-management techniques in an IP-over-WDM network: (1) provide protection at the WDM layer (i.e., set up a backup lightpath for every primary lightpath) or (2) provide restoration at the IP layer (i.e., overprovision the network so that after a fiber failure, the network should still be able to carry all the traffic it was carrying before the fiber failure). We formulate these fault-management problems mathematically, develop heuristics to find efficient solutions in typical networks, and analyze their characteristics (e.g., maximum guaranteed network capacity in the event of a fiber failure and the recovery time) relative to each other     

Protection approaches for dynamic traffic in IP/MPLS-over-WDM networks

Due to the explosive growth of data-related traffic driven by the Internet, network reliability becomes an important issue. We investigate various protection approaches to handle failures for dynamic traffic demands in IP/MPLS-over-WDM networks. An LSP can be protected at either the IP/MPLS layer or the optical layer. In IP/MPLS layer protection, an LSP is protected by providing a link-disjoint backup LSP between its end nodes. In optical layer protection, an LSP is protected by the backup lightpath of each lightpath traversed by the LSP. We present two integrated routing algorithms: hop-based integrated routing algorithm and bandwidth-based integrated routing algorithm (BIRA) to set up the restorable bandwidth-guaranteed paths efficiently. Then we present a multilayer protection scheme for multiclass traffic in such networks. This scheme takes into account the different QoS and recovery requirements of the traffic to provide protection capability either at the MPLS layer or at the optical layer in a cost-effective manner. We use the connection blocking probability and number of optical-electrical-optical conversions as performance metrics to compare various protection approaches.     

Hop constraint based admission and fairness control in IP-over-WDM networks

From both user and operator perspectives, fairness is an important aspect in IP-over-WDM networks where Label Switched Paths (LSPs) are dynamically groomed over optical networks. The setup of LSPs with long distances experiences a higher blocking probability due to both lightpath establishment unfairness in the optical layer and link cascading effect in the IP/MPLS layer. A simple LSP connection admission and fairness control mechanism is proposed in this article. This control mechanism is based on hop constraint, in which an LSP is accepted with a pre-assigned probability according to its distance and the hops of its route. Through suppressing connection of short-distance LSPs that overuse bandwidth to facilitate the setup of LSPs with long distances, this proposal achieves fine distance fairness performance with a slight overall blocking probability increment.     

Optimum Arrangement of Reliable Label-Switched Paths in MPLS Over Optical Networks

In MPLS (Multi-Protocol Label Switching) over optical networks, both the optical level and the MPLS level fault recovery can be considered. Generally, a more flexible path arrangement can be realized by the MPLS level recovery, while fast recovery can be achieved by the optical level recovery. When the optical level recovery is adopted, only normal traffic is carried through the working lightpaths and only recovered traffic is carried through the backup lightpaths. In contrast, the working LSPs (Label-Switched Paths) and the backup LSPs corresponding to other working LSPs can be accommodated into an identical lightpath when the MPLS level recovery is adopted. By such sophisticated accommodation of LSPs into the lightpaths, lightpath bandwidth can be utilized efficiently under the condition that the bandwidth utilization is restricted to attain the given objective of transfer quality for the MPLS packets in the normal state and unrestricted in a short time a failure occurs somewhere in the network. This paper proposes a simple mathematical programming model to obtain the optimum arrangement of the working and backup LSPs assuming the MPLS level recovery and a practical LSPs provisioning mode. By comparing the minimized network cost obtained from the optimum arrangement of the working and backup LSPs with the network cost resulting from the optical level recovery, this paper quantitatively evaluates the effectiveness of such bandwidth utilization improvement obtained from the MPLS level recovery and reveals that the MPLS level recovery can actually reduce the network cost due to its flexible arrangement of LSPs on the lightpaths.     

RATES: a server for MPLS traffic engineering

It has been suggested that one of the most significant reasons for multiprotocol label switching (MPLS) network deployment is network traffic engineering. The goal of traffic engineering is to make the best use of the network infrastructure, and this is facilitates by the explicit routing feature of MPLS, which allows many of the shortcomings associated with current IP routing schemes to be addressed. This article describes a software system called Routing and Traffic Engineering Server (RATES) developed for MPLS traffic engineering. It also describes some new routing ideas incorporated in RATES for MPLS explicit path selection. The RATES implementation consists of a policy and flow database, a browser-based interface for policy definition and entering resource provisioning requests, and a Common Open Policy Service protocol server-client implementation for communicating paths and resource information to edge routers. RATES also uses the OSPF topology database for dynamically obtaining link state information. RATES can set up bandwidth-guaranteed label-switched (LSPs) between specified ingress-egress pairs. The path selection for LSPs is on a new minimum-interference routing algorithm aimed at making the best use of network infrastructure in an online environment where LSP requests arrive one by one with no a priori information about future requests. Although developed for an MPLS application, the RATES implementation has many similarities in components to an intradomain differentiated services bandwidth broker     

MPLS Recovery Mechanisms for IP-over-WDM Networks

Due to the fast increase of Internet traffic and the enormous bandwidth potential of all-optical transport networks based on wavelength division multiplexing, an IP-over-WDM network scenario is likely to be widespread in future communication networks. At the same time, IP networks are becoming more and more mission-critical. Hence, it is of paramount importance for IP-over-WDM networks to be able to recover quickly from frequently occurring network failures. This paper explains how multi-protocol label switching (both electrical and optical) recovery mechanisms can be important to reach that goal. Moreover, a novel MPLS recovery mechanism called fast topology-driven constrained-based rerouting is presented. Different MPLS recovery mechanisms are compared to each other. Special attention hereby goes to the additional capacity that is required to recover from frequently occurring failures.     

Routing bandwidth guaranteed paths with local restoration in label switched networks

The emerging multiprotocol label switching (MPLS) networks enable network service providers to route bandwidth guaranteed paths between customer sites. This basic label switched path (LSP) routing is often enhanced using restoration routing which sets up alternate LSPs to guarantee uninterrupted connectivity in case network links or nodes along primary path fail. We address the problem of distributed routing of restoration paths, which can be defined as follows: given a request for a bandwidth guaranteed LSP between two nodes, find a primary LSP, and a set of backup LSPs that protect the links along the primary LSP. A routing algorithm that computes these paths must optimize the restoration latency and the amount of bandwidth used. We introduce the concept of "backtracking" to bound the restoration latency. We consider three different cases characterized by a parameter called backtracking distance D: 1) no backtracking (D=0); 2) limited backtracking (D=k); and 3) unlimited backtracking (D=/spl infin/). We use a link cost model that captures bandwidth sharing among links using various types of aggregate link-state information. We first show that joint optimization of primary and backup paths is NP-hard in all cases. We then consider algorithms that compute primary and backup paths in two separate steps. Using link cost metrics that capture bandwidth sharing, we devise heuristics for each case. Our simulation study shows that these algorithms offer a way to tradeoff bandwidth to meet a range of restoration latency requirements.     

Influence of GMPLS Recovery Mechanisms on TCP Performance

Optical networks based on wavelength-division-multiplexing (WDM) techniques are very likely to be omnipresent in future telecommunication networks. Those networks are deployed in order to face the steady growth of traffic, which is for a large part Internet related. In the resulting IP-over-WDM scenario, TCP/IP constitutes an important fraction of the traffic transported over these networks. As IP networks are becoming increasingly mission-critical, it is of the utmost importance that these networks (and hence the supporting transport networks) be able to recover quickly from failures such as cable breaks or equipment outages. To that end, several IP-over-WDM network scenarios and corresponding protection and restoration strategies have been devised. It is clear that some trade-offs will have to be made in order to choose an appropriate strategy. In this paper, we investigate the effects of such recovery actions on the behavior of TCP, being the ubiquitous protocol used by today's network users. We examine the influence of different parameters such as the speed of recovery actions, changing length of the routes followed by the client data (TCP flows), changes in available bandwidth, etc. Thereby, we focus on what the TCP end-users care about, i.e., the number of bytes transported end-to-end within a certain time interval.     

A distributed LSP scheme to reduce spare bandwidth demand in MPLS networks

A preplanned path-protection scheme with sufficient spare bandwidth is appropriate for real-time fault restoration in multiprotocol label switching (MPLS) networks. In this case, however, it is important to reduce the amount of spare bandwidth to prevent degradation of network efficiency. A distributed label switched path (D-LSP) scheme is proposed to reduce the amount of spare bandwidth required for protecting against network faults in MPLS networks. The main idea of the proposed D-LSP scheme is to partition traffic into multiple LSPs, each of which is established on a distinct link-disjoint route between each pair of end nodes. The D-LSP scheme is evaluated in terms of the reduction ratio of total network cost in comparison with the conventional LSP scheme. Traffic partitioning in the D-LSP scheme can decrease the statistical multiplexing gain (SMG) obtained by aggregating IP packet flows into an LSP. The tradeoff between spare bandwidth reduction and degradation of SMG due to traffic partitioning is also investigated. The numerical results show that the proposed D-LSP scheme yields the network cost-reduction ratio (NCRR) of at least 29%, 27%, and 15% for the networks where average node degrees are 4.6, 4.4, and 3.2, respectively. The D-LSP scheme shows the similar performance of NCRR in both Markovian traffic and self-similar traffic environments.     

IP restoration vs. optical protection: Which one has the least bandwidth requirements?

Survivability in IP-over-WDM networks has already been extensively discussed in a series of studies. While many studies assume an IP restoration scheme and focus on network connectivity in order to ensure proper recovery, few studies deal with optical protection. We investigate this question with the objective of estimating the respective bandwidth requirements of both recovery schemes, subject to single or multiple failures. We also design a mixed recovery scenario where the recovery is taken care at a different layer depending on the type of failures.Results shows that optical protection is by far the most economical recovery scheme in terms of bandwidth requirements.     

流量工程中静态路由算法的研究

该文提出了一种应用于流量工程环境中的静态路由算法。考虑当前的网络资源情况,分优先级别在网络中计算并配置标记交换路径(Label Switched Path,LSP),当某一优先级有多条 LSP需要并行配置时,利用遗传算法搜索最优或较优的配置方案,使得网络的链路带宽使用率低于管理员定义的某个限定值,达到合理分布资源的目的。此外,提出了一种改进的 Dijkstra 算法计算 LSP的最短路径。     

核心链路感知的可生存虚拟网络链路保护方法

针对现有可生存虚拟网络链路保护方法无差别对待所有虚拟链路、备份资源消耗多且故障后网络恢复时延长的问题,该文提出一种核心链路感知的可生存虚拟网络链路保护(CLA-SVNLP)方法。首先,综合考虑虚拟链路动态和静态两方面因素构建虚拟链路核心度度量模型,依据虚拟网络生存性需求,对核心度较高的虚拟链路进行备份保护;其次,将p圈引入可生存虚拟网络链路保护,依据虚拟网络特点构建p圈,为核心虚拟链路提供1:N保护,即每条核心虚拟链路平均消耗1/N条的备份链路带宽资源以减少备份链路资源消耗,并将单物理链路保护问题转化为多个p圈内的单虚拟链路保护问题;最后网络编码技术与p圈结合,将备份链路对核心虚拟链路提供的1:N保护转化为1+N保护,避免了故障后定位、检测及数据重传。仿真结果表明,该方法提高了备份资源利用率且缩短了故障后的网络恢复时延。     

QoS online routing and MPLS multilevel protection: a survey

A survey of MPLS protection methods and their utilization in combination with online routing methods is presented in this article. Usually, fault management methods pre-establish backup paths to recover traffic after a failure. In addition, MPLS allows the creation of different backup types, and hence MPLS is a suitable method to support traffic-engineered networks. In this article, an introduction of several label switch path backup types and their pros and cons are pointed out. The creation of an LSP involves a routing phase, which should include QoS aspects. In a similar way, to achieve a reliable network the LSP backups must also be routed by a QoS routing method. When LSP creation requests arrive one by one (a dynamic network scenario), online routing methods are applied. The relationship between MPLS fault management and QoS online routing methods is unavoidable, in particular during the creation of LSP backups. Both aspects are discussed in this article. Several ideas on how these actual technologies could be applied together are presented and compared.     

Strategy for Dynamic Routing and Grooming of Data Flows into Lightpaths in New Generation Network Based on the GMPLS Paradigm

This paper reports on a novel strategy and related algorithm for realizing dynamic routing and grooming into wavelengths of data flows (label switched paths, LSPs) in new generation optical networks based on generalized MPLS (GMPLS). The method allows arbitrary granularities of LSPs. The new generation network is modeled as a multi-layer network consisting of an IP/MPLS layer and an optical layer. In particular, the proposed solution adopts a dynamic routing algorithm based on the Dijkstra algorithm, that makes use of a weight system, integrated with a suitable method for grooming LSPs into wavelengths based on the packing criterion, thus harmonizing the features of MPLS packet flows whose bandwidth vary in a continuous range of values, with the optical world, where the wavelength bandwidth ranges according to discrete values. The weight system is based on the concepts of least resistance routing that allows to evenly distribute the traffic at the MPLS layer, while packing improves the use of optical resources by favoring more filled wavelengths with respect to the emptier ones. To assess the validity of the proposed solution a simulation model has been realized. The results obtained by simulation show that the packing criterion allows reducing the refused bandwidth from two down to about four times, for a network load of 70% and 55%, respectively, when compared with the alternative method named spreading. The dependence of the proposed solution on bandwidth granularity has been also investigated. Moreover, in order to demonstrate the superior performance of the proposed routing solution, a comparison between the proposed strategy with relevant solutions known in the literature, based on either a single or multi-layer approach, is also reported. In order to perform the comparison, all the reference routing solutions that have been considered adopt the packing method for LSP grooming into the lightpaths. The results show that our solution outperforms the others in terms of amount of traffic that can be on-line accommodated. For instance, assuming a blocking probability of 10^–3, the proposed solution is able to further reduce the refused bandwidth of the best routing algorithm considered in the analysis by a factor of three times, thanks to the knowledge of optical resource availability.     

一种虚拟路由冗余协议负载均衡技术实现机制

标准VRRP（虚拟路由器冗余协议）解决在配置默认网关环境下消除网络单点故障问题,其协议自身不够灵活,即虚拟路由器中只有主设备进行流量转发,其他备用设备均作为备份不进行流量转发,无法负载分担,不能最大程度提高带宽和设备利用率。针对该局限,在此基于与某公司的合作项目,论述了一种虚拟路由冗余协议负载均衡实现机制,在标准VRRP协议分析研究基础上引入虚拟转发器和转发状态机,实现一个虚拟IP对应多个虚拟MAC的机制,无需配置多个备份组就能同时实现路由冗余备份和流量负载均衡,使局域网内用户能够通过每台虚拟转发器与外界通信,极大地提高资源利用率,最后以实验验证了设计可行性。     

Performance Comparison of Overlay and Peer Models in IP/MPLS over Optical Networks

We study the connection establishment of label switched paths (LSPs), and compare the LSP blocking performance of the overlay and peer models in IP/MPLS over optical networks. We consider two dynamic routing algorithms for the establishment of LSP connections, of which one is for the overlay model and the other is for the peer model. Our investigations on two typical network topologies, namely NSFNET and ARPA2 networks, show that the number of add/drop ports (or transceivers) on optical cross-connects (OXCs) has a significant impact on the LSP blocking performance for both models. We show by computer simulation that in each case, there is a threshold value for the add/drop ratio, which can achieve almost the best blocking performance. This threshold value remains virtually unchanged as the traffic load varies, but it does depend on the network topology and the number of wavelengths per fiber. This will then indicate the number of add/drop ports to be used so that one can achieve a near optimal blocking performance without incurring unnecessarily excessive network costs. Our investigations reveal that the peer model achieves a much better blocking performance than the overlay model when the number of add/drop ports is relatively high, but that this is not always true when the number of add/drop ports is small.