A wavelength-buffering scheme for dynamic traffic in optical wavelength-division multiplexing networks

Addresses the problem of efficient communication in unreliable multi-hop optical networks supported by wavelength division multiplexing (WDM). We first define a new cost model for routing in (optical) WDM networks that is more general and realistic than the existing models. Our model takes into consideration not only the cost of wavelength access and conversion but also the cost for wavelength switching when several optical channels of the same wavelength arrive at the same node. We then propose a set of efficient algorithms in both reliable and unreliable WDM networks on the new cost model respectively for each of three important communication patterns-multiple point-to-point routing, multicast and multiple multicast.

To utilize the wavelength resources of Internet protocol (IP) over wavelength division multiplexing (WDM) optical networks, a multi-constrained multicast traffic grooming algorithm is proposed in this paper. This algorithm can achieve multicast traffic grooming in IP over WDM optical networks under multi-constraints, including the number of optical transceivers, wavelength conversion capability and wavelength splitting capability. We simulated the traffic grooming algorithm using the topology of GEANT. Emulation results show that our algorithm has a lower blocking proportion compared with the multi-hop traffic grooming algorithm, which can achieve multicast traffic grooming more effectively.

We study the problem of providing real-time service to hard and soft real-time messages in wavelength division multiplexing (WDM) optical networks. We propose and evaluate a set of scheduling algorithms which schedule message transmissions in single-hop WDM passive star networks based on specific time constraints. We compare the performances of our algorithms with that of the typical WDM scheduling algorithm which does not consider the time constraint of the transmitted messages by discrete-event simulations and an analytical model. We find that the improvement on real-time performance can be attributed to our scheduling algorithms where the time constraint of messages has been taken into consideration. This study suggests that when scheduling real-time messages in WDM networks, one has to consider not only the problem of resources allocation in the network but also the problem of sequencing messages based on their time constraints.

In a many-to-many session, a participant distributes and receives traffic flows to/from all others in the same session. It is desirable to achieve both high resource utilization and low power consumption when such sessions are provisioned. In wavelength division multiplexing (WDM) optical networks, traffic grooming has been widely applied as the key technology for aggregating sessions to improve resource utilization. However, the current many-to-many grooming approaches, the lightpath circle and hubbed light-tree, do not make an effort to reduce the power consumption of many-to-many sessions. In this paper, we formulate the green routing and aggregation of many-to-many sessions problem and prove its NP-completeness. For problem solving in WDM optical networks, we apply a rational combined method of lightpaths. Both an integer linear programming-based approach and a novel graph-based heuristic are devised. We further provide an illustrative comparison between our heuristic and the existing benchmarks in terms of power consumption. Extensive simulation results demonstrate that, compared with the benchmarks, our heuristic improves the average power efficiency in the range of 13-19%.

We address the issue of inapproximability of the wavelength assignment problem in wavelength division multiplexing (WDM) optical networks. We prove that in an n-node WDM optical network with m lightpaths and maximum load L, if NP ≠ ZPP, for any constant δ>0, no polynomial time algorithm can achieve approximation ratio n1/2−δ or m1−δ, where NP is the class of problems which can be solved by nondeterministic polynomial time algorithms, and ZPP is the class of problems that can be solved by polynomial randomized algorithms with zero probability of error. Furthermore, the above result still holds even when L=2. We also prove that no algorithm can guarantee the number of wavelengths to be less than $$(\sqrt{n}/2)L$$ or (m/2)L. This is the first time inapproximability results are established for the wavelength assignment problem in WDM optical networks. We also notice the following fact, namely, there is a polynomial time algorithm for wavelength assignment which achieves approximation ratio of O(m(log log m)2/(log m)3). Therefore, the above lower bound of m1−δ is nearly tight.

In all-optical Wavelength Division Multiplexing (WDM) technique, data contention is an inevitable challenge. For reliable data transmission, contention resolution is very much essential. There are different contention resolution techniques that are used in optical WDM network. In this paper, wavelength converter is used for contention resolution in optical WDM network. Here Semiconductor Optical Amplifier (SOA) is used to implement wavelength converter based on a special third-order nonlinear susceptibility phenomenon of silica fiber, called Four-Wave Mixing (FWM) technique. Realization of wavelength converter is done for two different sets of WDM networks. Performance of the wavelength converter was estimated in terms of number frequencies generated, number of new wavelength generated, its corresponding power, etc. Result shows that four-wave mixing is a very effective technique to generate new wavelengths at the output to overcome the problems due to contention in an optical WDM network. OptiSystem of Optiwave is used to design schematic layout for the wavelength converter using SOA.

In this paper, we compare performance of fixed-grid Wavelength Division Multiplexing (WDM) and Elastic Optical Networks (EONs) in dynamic provisioning of many-to-many (m2m) flows. Currently, with a growth of services relying on many-to-many communication paradigm such as distributed computing, inter-Data Center communication, content delivery networking or other requiring high-bandwidth in group communication, it is vital to deliver new solutions facilitating these demanding transmissions. Therefore, the authors investigate provisioning of m2m traffic in high-performance optical networks. This work focuses on dynamic Routing and Wavelength Assignment (RWA) problem in WDM networks as well as Routing and Spectrum Allocation (RSA) problem in EONs for m2m flows using replicated communication through auxiliary rendezvous servers.

The widespread deployment of wireless telecommunication networks and growing Internet traffic globally leads to a substantial increase in signal traffic demands in fiber optic networks. This demand surge places significant pressure on the survivability of optical networks, specifically when faced with fiber cable failures that prevent failed optical fibers from satisfying connection requests. To address this challenge, in this paper, we consider integrated planning of regenerator installation, optical connection routing, and wavelength assignment (RWA) for wavelength division multiplexing (WDM) optical networks under link failures. To the best of our knowledge, we are the first to consider such an integrated problem. We minimize the number of backup regenerators required to fulfill all connection requests under all potential link failures while accounting for the wavelength and routing constraints. We formulate the problem as an integer program, while its size exponentially increases with the network size by nature. To solve large-scale instances for practical uses in the industry, we propose efficient algorithms to generate near-optimal solutions that are practically implementable. We perform extensive numerical experiments to demonstrate the effectiveness of our approach in solving real-world instances provided by our industry partners. The results show that our approach can efficiently obtain high-quality solutions while ensuring a minimal increase in backup regenerators as the network grows. Our solutions also offer valuable insights into planning a cost-effective and reliable fiber optic network for network operators.

In this paper, we investigate problems related to optical wavelength division multiplexing (WDM) networks that use the virtual concatenation (VCAT) mechanism of synchronous optical network (SONET) technology. VCAT, an end-to-end mechanism, allows SONET based optical WDM networks to carry traffic in

In this paper, we investigate the design and performance of multi-path routing in optical wavelength division multiplexed (WDM) networks, that support traffic grooming. A circuit-switched network is considered, where connection requests arriving to the network have to be allotted an end-to-end path carrying the requested bandwidth. Traffic grooming implies that the capacity of a wavelength on a fiber link (e.g. OC-48) will be shared among several lower capacity connections (e.g. OC-3). In order to increase the network performance in terms of improved blocking probability and also to support survivable operation, a connection is split into multiple smaller sub-streams and carried on multiple sub-paths from source to destination. This is based on the Virtual Concatenation (VCAT) mechanisms used in SONET/SDH networks. One important constraint is that the differential delay among the sub-paths should be limited (e.g. 25 ms, 45 ms, etc.). In this paper, we consider mechanisms for splitting a connection request while maintaining the differential delay constraint. In particular, we study two schemes: even splitting of connection bandwidth among the constituent sub-paths; and uneven splitting of connection bandwidth. The work also considers sub-paths that are not necessarily link-disjoint. The performance analysis shows that the uneven splitting mechanism can substantially improve performance in terms of blocking probability (and other metrics) compared to the even splitting mechanism.

As a result of the rise of Cloud and Grid computing, network operators are requested to improve their resource provisioning systems. In such scenarios, advance reservation (AR) and immediate reservation (IR) are gaining importance. While the former is capable of delivering low connection blocking for delay-tolerant applications, the latter is used by delay-sensitive ones. Even when both IR and AR requests share the same network substrate, service differentiation is needed. Additionally, under network resources partitioning, not only can the overall network capacity be under-utilized, but service differentiation can also be degraded. In this paper, we assess hybrid IR/AR sharing and partitioning mechanisms in optical wavelength-division multiplexing (WDM) networks, and propose efficient schemes for providing relative quality of service (QoS) differentiation among traffic classes. In order to overcome the poor resource utilization of strict partitioning, we develop and evaluate a preemption-based flexible partitioning framework aiming to provide relative QoS in hybrid IR/AR environments still supporting resource partitioning. Two preemption policies are proposed: switch first then preempt (SFTP) and preempt first then switch (PFTS). Through extensive simulations, we show that the proposed flexible partitioning framework can improve resource utilization, lower the overall blocking, and achieve well-differentiated relative QoS compared to strict partitioning.

In this letter, we propose a computational model for calculating blocking probabilities of multifiber wavelength division multiplexing (WDM) optical networks. We first derive the blocking probability of a fiber based on a Markov chain, from which the blocking probability of a link is derived by means of conditional probabilities. The blocking probability of a lightpath can be computed by a recursive formula. Finally, the network-wide blocking probability can be expressed as the ratio of the total blocked load versus the total offered load. Simulation results for different fiber-wavelength configurations conform closely to the numerical results based on our proposed model, thus demonstrating the feasibility of our proposed model for estimating the blocking performance of multifiber WDM optical networks.

This paper proposes the optimal design of lightpath Routing and Wavelength Assignment (RWA) problem in Wavelength Division Multiplexing (WDM) networks without wavelength conversion. We formulate RWA as a mixed Integer Linear Programming (ILP) problem where the objective is to minimize the cost of wavelength assignment to the fiber links in the network. The Lagrangean relaxation technique and the optimization-based heuristics are used to solve this problem. Two sets of computational experiments are performed to test the algorithms for the maximum carried traffic and minimum wavelength requirements in three different network topologies (GTE, ARPA, OCT network). Based on solution quality to the computational experiments, the error gaps between the upper bound and the lower bound are close enough that the near optimal solutions could be obtained. On the other hand, we also show that the solution quality degrade gracefully under more and more heavy traffic network environment. By assessing solution quality and the computational time, we propose the efficient and effective optimization-based algorithms based on the Lagrangean relaxation method for the RWA problem in the WDM networks without wavelength conversion.

In anycast, connection requests are routed to one of multiple destination candidates, thus helping improve the overall acceptance of service requests in the network when compared to traditional unicast. In this paper we develop a new analytical model to compute the network-wide blocking performance for anycast routing and wavelength assignment (ARWA) in wavelength division multiplexing (WDM) optical networks using the reduced-load fixed-point approximation analysis. This model is based on conventional queuing theory for loss systems combined with a joint probability analysis of the anycast service alternatives. Performance results show that our model provides good accuracy compared to simulation results.

Sparse wavelength conversion can increase the performance of all-optical wavelength division multiplexing (WDM) networks signi cantly by relaxing the wavelength continuity constraint. In this paper, we study the wavelength converter placement problem in multi- ber networks with static traf c demands. We present a tabu search based heuristic algorithm. The objective of the algorithm is to satisfy all the traf c demands with the minimum total cost of bers achieved in the full conversion case, by placing minimum number of wavelength converting nodes. We also implement a greedy algorithm and compare the performances of these converter placement algorithms with the optimum solutions on a sample network. The Tabu search based algorithm achieves the optimum solution in 72% of the test cases and it increases the average number of wavelength converting nodes by less than 10% with respect to the optimum solution. The effect of the utilized routing scheme on the generated solutions and the correlation between the converter node locations and the amount of traf c passing through the nodes are also investigated.