GMPLS-enabled MPLS-TP/PWE3 node with integrated 10 Gbps tunable DWDM transponders: design and experimental evaluation

In this paper we propose a more cost-efficient alternative to current transport network technologies (SONET/SDH) based on the high-bandwidth transport and deterministic performance of the optical circuit technologies (i.e., WSON) along with the efficient aggregation and statistical multiplexing of a packet transport technology (i.e., MPLS-TP) to support IP and Ethernet services. The purpose is to achieve cost reductions, simplified operations and flexible scalability in transport networks. We present the architectural design, implementation and the performance evaluation of the forwarding capabilities of a MPLS-TP/PWE3 node with integrated 10 Gbps tunable DWDM transponders, extending the GMPLS-enabled WSON transport network of the ADRENALINE Testbed. The node has been implemented using commercial off-the-shelf hardware and the forwarding engine has been implemented using open source software. An evaluation of the node is provided by means of analyzing the obtained throughput and CPU usage in different evaluation scenarios with different traffic grooming and traffic aggregation strategies.