An Algorithm for Traffic Grooming in WDM Optical Mesh Networks with Multiple Objectives

This paper studies a traffic grooming in wavelength-division multiplexing (WDM) mesh networks for the SONET/SDH streams requested between node pairs. The traffic could be groomed at the access node before converting to an optical signal carried in the all-optical network. We design a virtual topology with a given physical topology to satisfy multiple objectives and constraints. The grooming problem of a static demand is considered as an optimization problem. The traditional algorithms found in the literatures mostly focus on a single objective either to maximize the performance or to minimize the cost. We propose a multi-objective evolutionary algorithm to solve a grooming problem that optimizes multiple objectives all together at the same time. In this paper we consider the optimization of three objectives: maximize the traffic throughput, minimize the number of transceivers, and minimize the average propagation delay or average hop counts. The simulation results show that our approach is superior to an existing heuristic approaches in an acceptable running time.     

Distributed dynamic grooming routing and wavelength assignment in WDM optical mesh networks

The bandwidth of a wavelength channel in WDM optical networks is very high compared to the user’s requirements for various applications. Therefore, there is a scope for better utilization of channel bandwidth by traffic grooming, in which several user’s channels are multiplexed for transmission over a single channel. Several research works have been reported on traffic grooming routing and wavelength assignment (GRWA) for static and dynamic traffic pattern under centralized environment. Distributed dynamic grooming routing and wavelength assignment (DDGRWA) is a new and quite unexplored area in WDM optical mesh networks. This article introduces the concept of distributed traffic grooming in WDM mesh networks which also includes virtual topology construction, reconfiguration, routing and wavelength assignment in the distributed environment assuming incoming traffic to be dynamic in nature. We have also presented simulation results of our algorithm on dynamically generated traffic under various network topologies.     

Design of grooming architectures for optical WDM mesh networks: limited grooming with electronic wavelength conversion

In this article, we consider the problem of traffic grooming in optical wavelength division multiplexed (WDM) mesh networks under static traffic conditions. The objective of this work is to minimize the network cost and in particular, the electronic port costs incurred for meeting a given performance objective. In earlier work, we have shown the benefits of limited grooming switch architectures, where only a subset of wavelengths in a network are equipped with expensive SONET Add Drop Multiplexers (SADM) that provide the grooming functionality. In this work, we also consider the wavelength conversion capability of such groomers. This can be achieved using a digital cross-connect (DCS) in the grooming switch to switch low-speed connections between the SADMs (and hence, between wavelengths). The grooming switch thus avoids the need for expensive optical wavelength converters. Based on these observations, we propose a limited conversion-based grooming architecture for optical WDM mesh networks. The local ports at every node in this architecture can be one of three types: an add-drop port, a grooming port that allows wavelength conversion or a grooming port that does not allow wavelength conversion. The problem studied is: given a static traffic model, where should the different ports be placed in a network? We formulate this as an optimization problem using an Integer Linear Programing (ILP) and present numerical results for the same. We also present a heuristic-based approach to solve the problem for larger networks.     

A novel robust routing algorithm for multi-granularity connection requests in wavelength division multiplexing mesh networks

In this paper, we propose a novel robust routing algorithm based on Valiant load-balancing under the model of polyhedral uncertainty (i.e., hose uncertainty model) for WDM (wavelength division multiplexing) mesh networks. Valiant load-balanced robust routing algorithm constructs the stable virtual topology on which any traffic patterns under the hose uncertainty model can be efficiently routed. Considering there are multi-granularity connection requests in WDM mesh networks, we propose the method called hose-model separation to solve the problem for the proposed algorithm. Our goal is to minimize total network cost when constructing the stable virtual topology that assures robust routing for the hose model in WDM mesh networks. A mathematical formulation (integer linear programming, ILP) about Valiant load-balanced robust routing algorithm is presented. Two fast heuristic approaches are also proposed and evaluated. We compare the network throughput of the virtual topology constructed by the proposed algorithm with that of the traditional traffic grooming algorithm under the same total network cost by computer simulation.     

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.     

Strategies for optimal logical topology design and traffic grooming

Traffic grooming techniques are used to combine low-speed data streams onto high-speed lightpaths with the objective of minimizing the network cost, or maximizing the network throughput. In this article, we present a complete suite of efficient Integer Linear Program (ILP) formulations for logical topology design and traffic grooming on mesh WDM networks. Our formulations can be easily modified to implement different objective functions and, contrary to previous formulations, our ILP formulation can be used to generate optimal solutions for practical sized networks with hundreds of requests. Our first set of formulations addresses the complete logical topology design traffic grooming problem, including RWA and traffic routing. The second set uses the simplifying assumption that RWA is not an issue. The last two sets address optimal traffic grooming alone, where the logical topology is already specified. We have studied these formulations, using simulation with networks having up to 30 nodes, and with hundreds and, in some cases, over a thousand low-speed data streams and have shown that the formulations are able to generate optimal solutions within a reasonable amount of time.     

QoS aware traffic grooming and integrated routing on IP over WDM networks

In this article, we consider traffic grooming and integrated routing in IP over WDM networks. The challenges of this problem come from jointly considering traffic grooming, IP routing, and lightpath routing and wavelength assignment (RWA). Due to the high bandwidth of optical fiber, there exists a mismatch between the capacity needed by an IP flow and that provided by a single lightpath. Traffic grooming is therefore used to increase the network utilization by aggregating multiple IP flows in a single lightpath. However, traffic grooming incurs additional delays that might violate Quality-of-Service (QoS) requirements of IP users. In this work, the tradeoff between traffic grooming and IP QoS routing is well-formulated as a mixed integer and linear optimization problem, in which the revenue from successfully provisioning IP paths is to be maximized. Problem constraints include IP QoS, routing, optical RWA, and the WDM network capacity. We propose a novel Lagrangean relaxation (LGR) algorithm to perform constraint relaxation and derive a set of subproblems. The Lagrangean multipliers are used in the proposed algorithm to obtain a solution in consideration of grooming advantage and resource constraints simultaneously. Through numerical experiments and comparisons between the proposed algorithm and a two-phase approach, LGR outperforms the two-phase approach under all experimental cases. In particular, the improvement ratio becomes even more significant when the ratio of IP flow to the wavelength capacity is smaller.     

光网络选路和波长分配研究

文章在叙述了光网络中选路和波长分配(RWA)要解决的基本问题后,对有关方面的近年研究作了综述,主要包括:虚拓扑重构、业务量疏导的RWA、多播RWA、抗毁网络的RWA.抗毁问题涉及WDM网络的抗毁选路、区分可靠性、网状网的快速恢复、多故障下的抗毁.     

Traffic grooming,routing, and wavelength assignment in an optical WDM mesh networks based on clique partitioning

In wavelength routed optical networks, the number of wavelength channels is limited due to several constraints and each wavelength as well as each lightpath support traffic in the Gbps range. On the other hand, the traffic requested by an individual connection is still in the Mbps range. Therefore, to utilize the network resources (such as bandwidth and transceivers) effectively, several low-speed traffic streams have to be efficiently groomed or multiplexed into one or more high-speed lightpaths. The grooming problem of a static demand is considered as an optimization problem. In this work, we have investigated the traffic grooming problem with the objective of maximizing the network throughput for wavelength-routed mesh networks and map this problem to the clique partitioning problem. We have proposed an algorithm to handle general multi-hop static traffic grooming based on the clique partitioning concept. The efficiency of our approach has been established through extensive simulation on different sets of traffic demands with different bandwidth granularities for different network topologies and compared the approach with existing algorithms.     

Dynamic traffic grooming algorithms for reconfigurable SONET over WDM networks

The emergence of wavelength-division multiplexing (WDM) technology provides the capability for increasing the bandwidth of synchronous optical network (SONET) rings by grooming low-speed traffic streams onto different high-speed wavelength channels. Since the cost of SONET add-drop multiplexers (SADM) at each node dominates the total cost of these networks, how to assign the wavelength, groom the traffic, and bypass the traffic through the intermediate nodes has received a lot of attention from researchers recently. Moreover, the traffic pattern of the optical network changes from time to time. How to develop dynamic reconfiguration algorithms for traffic grooming is an important issue. In this paper, two cases (best fit and full fit) for handling reconfigurable SONET over WDM networks are proposed. For each approach, an integer linear programming model and heuristic algorithms (TS-1 and TS-2, based on the tabu search method) are given. The results demonstrate that the TS-1 algorithm can yield better solutions but has a greater running time than the greedy algorithm for the best fit case. For the full fit case, the tabu search heuristic yields competitive results compared with an earlier simulated annealing based method and it is more stable for the dynamic case.     

Grooming of Arbitrary Traffic in Optical WDM Mesh Networks Using a Genetic Algorithm

In this paper, a genetic algorithm is proposed for grooming of arbitrary traffic in optical mesh networks. Traffic streams are routed in the wavelength division multiplexing (WDM) grooming networks that comprise both fiber links and established lightpaths. Chromosomes are split into multiple versions when multiple shortest routes are found. The selection strategy is based on a comparison between chromosomes. A variety of cost functions are proposed for the routing algorithm and two comparison methods are considered in the selection procedure. Computer simulations are performed with randomly generated traffic patterns. The results show that the algorithm is effective for traffic grooming (TG) problems, and also for routing and wavelength assignment problems.     

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     

Traffic grooming in an optical WDM mesh network

In wavelength-division multiplexing (WDM) optical networks, the bandwidth request of a traffic stream can be much lower than the capacity of a lightpath. Efficiently grooming low-speed connections onto high-capacity lightpaths will improve the network throughput and reduce the network cost. In WDM/SONET ring networks, it has been shown in the optical network literature that by carefully grooming the low-speed connection and using wavelength-division multiplexer (OADM) to perform the optical bypass at intermediate nodes, electronic ADMs can be saved and network cost will be reduced. In this study, we investigate the traffic-grooming problem in a WDM-based optical mesh topology network. Our objective is to improve the network throughput. We study the node architecture for a WDM mesh network with traffic-grooming capability. A mathematical formulation of the traffic-grooming problem is presented in this study and several fast heuristics are also proposed and evaluated     

A novel generic graph model for traffic grooming in heterogeneous WDM mesh networks

As the operation of our fiber-optic backbone networks migrates from interconnected SONET rings to arbitrary mesh topology, traffic grooming on wavelength-division multiplexing (WDM) mesh networks becomes an extremely important research problem. To address this problem, we propose a new generic graph model for traffic grooming in heterogeneous WDM mesh networks. The novelty of our model is that, by only manipulating the edges of the auxiliary graph created by our model and the weights of these edges, our model can achieve various objectives using different grooming policies, while taking into account various constraints such as transceivers, wavelengths, wavelength-conversion capabilities, and grooming capabilities. Based on the auxiliary graph, we develop an integrated traffic-grooming algorithm (IGABAG) and an integrated grooming procedure (INGPROC) which jointly solve several traffic-grooming subproblems by simply applying the shortest-path computation method. Different grooming policies can be represented by different weight-assignment functions, and the performance of these grooming policies are compared under both nonblocking scenario and blocking scenario. The IGABAG can be applied to both static and dynamic traffic grooming. In static grooming, the traffic-selection scheme is key to achieving good network performance. We propose several traffic-selection schemes based on this model and we evaluate their performance for different network topologies.     

Effective Traffic Grooming Algorithms in SONET/WDM Ring Networks

Much work has focused on traffic grooming in SONET/WDM ring networks. Previous work has considered many aspects of traffic grooming, including minimizing the number of ADMs, minimizing the number of wavelengths, considering different traffic models, using different network architectures, incorporating switching capability and so on. In this work, we study traffic grooming in unidirectional ring networks with no switching capability under both uniform traffic and non-uniform traffic models to reduce electronic multiplexing costs. Based on the clustering notion, we derive a general and tighter lower bound for the number of ADMs required in traffic grooming under the uniform all-to-all traffic model. This bound reduces to special cases obtained in previous work. We also derive general, tighter, and closed form lower bounds for the number of ADMs required under two non-uniform traffic models: the distance-dependent traffic model and the non-uniform symmetric traffic model. Cost-effective multi-phase algorithms that exploit traffic characteristics are then designed and studied to efficiently groom traffic streams under different traffic models. Our numerical and simulation results show that the proposed multi-phase algorithms outperform existing traffic grooming algorithms by using a fewer number of ADMs. Our algorithms in several cases also achieve the lower bounds derived.     

On Hierarchical Traffic Grooming in WDM Networks

The traffic grooming problem is of high practical importance in emerging wide-area wavelength division multiplexing (WDM) optical networks, yet it is intractable for any but trivial network topologies. In this work, we present an effective and efficient hierarchical traffic grooming framework for WDM networks of general topology, with the objective of minimizing the total number of electronic ports. At the first level of hierarchy, we decompose the network into clusters and designate one node in each cluster as the hub for grooming traffic. At the second level, the hubs form another cluster for grooming intercluster traffic. We view each (first- or second-level) cluster as a virtual star, and we present an efficient near-optimal algorithm for determining the logical topology of lightpaths to carry the traffic within each cluster. Routing and wavelength assignment is then performed directly on the underlying physical topology. We demonstrate the effectiveness of our approach by applying it to two networks of realistic size, a 32-node, 53-link topology and a 47-node, 96-link network. Comparisons to lower bounds indicate that hierarchical grooming is efficient in its use of the network resources of interest, namely, electronic ports and wavelengths. In addition to scaling to large network sizes, our hierarchical approach also facilitates the control and management of multigranular networks.      

Grooming of arbitrary traffic in SONET/WDM BLSRs

SONET add-drop multiplexers (ADMs) are the dominant cost factor in the SONET/WDM rings. They can potentially be reduced by optical bypass via optical add-drop multiplexers (OADMs) and traffic grooming. In this paper we study the grooming of arbitrary traffic in WDM bidirectional line-switched rings (BLSRs) so as to minimize the ADM cost. Two versions of the minimum ADM cost problem are addressed. In the first version, each traffic stream has a predetermined routing. In the second version, the routing of each traffic stream is not given in advance; however, each traffic stream is fully duplex with symmetric demands, which must be routed along the same path but in opposite directions. In both versions, we further consider two variants depending on whether a traffic stream is allowed to be split at intermediate nodes. All the four combinations are NP-hard even for any fixed line-speed. General lower bounds on the minimum ADM cost are provided. Our traffic grooming follows a two-phased approach. The problem targeted at in each phase is NP-hard itself, except the second phase when the line speed is two. Various approximation algorithms are proposed in both phases, and their approximation ratios are analyzed.     

On routing in large WDM networks

An important problem in WDM network design is to construct a logical topology and determine an optimal routing over that topology. Mixed Integer Linear Program (MILP) formulations to generate optimal solutions for this problem have been presented. Such formulations are computationally intractable, even for moderate sized networks. A standard approach is to decouple the problem of logical topology design and the problem of routing the traffic on this logical topology. Heuristics for finding the logical topology exist and a straight-forward linear program (LP), based on the node-arc formulation can be used to solve the routing problem over a given logical topology. We have found that such LP formulations become computationally infeasible for large networks. In this paper, we present a new formulation, based on the arc-chain representation, for optimally routing the specified traffic over a given logical topology to minimize the congestion of the network. We have used the revised simplex method incorporating an implicit column generation technique, and exploited the special Generalized Upper Bounding structure as well as the possibility of eta-factorization for efficiently updating the dual variables and finding the solution. Experimental results on a number of networks demonstrate the suitability of this approach.     

Blocking performance of time switching in TDM wavelength routing networks

Advances in optical WDM technology have paved the way for high-capacity wavelength channels capable of carrying information at Gb/s rates. However, with current traffic streams requiring only a fraction of a wavelength’s bandwidth, it becomes necessary to groom these independent low rate traffic streams on to higher capacity wavelength channels. An all-optical approach to grooming is to allow many connections to time-share a wavelength. Accordingly, in a TDM wavelength routing network, the establishment of a connection requires the assignment of time slots in addition to routing and wavelength assignment. One of the primary challenges in such networks is the need for quick reconfiguration at the routing nodes. In this paper, we investigate the effects of switch reconfigurability, wavelength conversion and time slot interchangers (TSIs) on the blocking performance of connections with multiple rates. Heuristics for time slot assignment that consider constraints imposed by six different node architectures are proposed, and the blocking performance of the TDM wavelength routing network is evaluated through simulations. Results indicate that limited reconfigurability at the nodes is sufficient to attain the performance obtained with full reconfigurability, especially when connections occupy only a small fraction of the wavelength capacity. Furthermore, the blocking performance is not seen to benefit significantly with the introduction of wavelength converters and TSIs, thus signifying that the improvement in blocking is largely dependent on the switch reconfigurability at the nodes.     

Dynamic Routing in WDM Grooming Networks

Traffic grooming in optical networks has gained significant importance in recent years due to the prevailing sub-wavelength traffic requirement of end-users. In this paper, a methodology for dynamic routing of fractional-wavelength traffic in WDM grooming networks is developed. To evaluate the performance of routing algorithms, a new performance metric that reflects the network utilization is also proposed. The performances of shortest-widest path, widest-shortest path, and available shortest path routing algorithms are evaluated on a class of WDM grooming networks by considering traffic of different capacity requirements. The effect of dispersity routing, where higher capacity requests are broken into multiple unit capacity requests, is also investigated. The most interesting counter-intuitive result that is observed is that increasing the grooming capability in a network could result in degrading the performance of the widest-shortest path algorithm.