Connections Provisioning Strategies for dynamic WDM networks

Abstract: The size, complexity, and the amount of traffic generation of optical communication networks have dramatically increased over the last decades. Exciting technologies, namely, optical amplifiers, wavelength division multiplexing (WDM) and optical filters have been included in optical networks, in order to fulfill end users appetite for bandwidth. However, the users high bandwidth demand will further increase with time, as emerging on-demand bandwidth intensive applications are starting to dominate the networks. Applications such as interactive video, ultra-high definition TV, backup storage, grid computing, e-science, e-health to mention a few, are becoming increasingly attractive and important for the community. Given the high bandwidth requirements and strict service level specifications (SLSs) of such applications, WDM networks equipped with agile devices, such as reconfigurable optical add-drop multiplexers and tunable transceivers integrated with G-MPLS/ASON control-plane technology are advocated as a natural choice for their implementation. SLSs are metrics of a service level agreement (SLA), which is a contract between a customer and network operator. Apart from other candidate parameters, the set-up delay tolerance and connection holding-time have been defined as metrics of SLA.This work addresses the network connections provisioning problem for the above mentioned demanding applications, by exploiting the time dimension of connections request. The problem is investigated for dynamic networks comprising ideal and nonideal components in their physical layer, and for applications with differentiated set-up delay tolerance and quality of signal requirements. Various strategies for different scenarios are proposed, each strategy combining in a different way the concept of both set-up delay tolerance and connection holding-time awareness. The objectives of all these strategies are to enhance the network connections provisioning capability and to fulfill customers demand, by utilizing the network resources efficiently.