Optimization of WDM Optical Networks

Optical network, with its enormous data carrying capability, has become the obvious choice for today\u27s high speed communication networks. Wavelength Division Multiplexing (WDM) technology and Traffic Grooming techniques enable us to efficiently exploit the huge bandwidth capacity of optical fibers. Wide area translucent networks use sparse placement of regenerators to overcome the physical impairments and wavelength constraints introduced by all optical (transparent) networks, and achieve a performance level close to fully switched (opaque) networks at a much lesser network cost. In this dissertation we discuss our research on several issues on the optimal design of optical networks, including optimal traffic grooming in WDM optical networks, optimal regenerator placement problem (RRP) in translucent networks, dynamic lightpath allocation and dynamic survivable lightpath allocation in translucent networks and static lightpath allocation in translucent networks. With extensive simulation experiments, we have established the effectiveness and efficiencies of our proposed algorithms

Optimization of Contemporary Telecommunications Networks: Generalized Spanning Trees and WDM Optical Networks

We present a study of two NP-hard telecommunications network design problems - the prize-collecting generalized minimum spanning tree problem (PCGMST) and the design of optical networks with wavelength division multiplexing. The first problem, the PCGMST problem, involves the design of regional backbone networks, where a set of local area networks (LANs) need to be connected by a minimum cost tree network using exactly one gateway site from each LAN. We present several polynomial time heuristics for the PCGMST problem and show that these algorithms, at best, provide only modest quality solutions. We also present two metaheuristics - a local search procedure and a genetic algorithm, and show that these procedures provide compelling high-quality results on a large set of test problems. Our study of the PCGMST problem is concluded by a presentation of two exact solution procedures that can be used to find optimal solutions in networks of moderate size. The second problem studied in this dissertation is a more complex network design problem that involves optical networks with wavelength division multiplexing (WDM). These networks provide an abundance of transmission bandwidth, but require the use of expensive equipment, which, in turn, mandates careful use of the resources available for their design. The novel aspect of WDM optical networks is that they require simultaneous design of two network layers. The first layer is the virtual topology that requires routing of logical paths over the physical layer of optical fibers. The second layer involves routing and grooming of traffic requests over the logical paths established in the virtual topology. This problem has been extensively studied in the last 10 years, but due to its notoriously hard nature, only few exact solution procedures for relaxed versions of this problem were developed so far. We propose one exact and two approximate branch-and-price algorithms for two versions of the WDM optical network design problem and present results of the computational study involving two different design objectives. Finally, we propose two classes of valid inequalities for our branch-and-price algorithms, and discuss applicability of our algorithms to different versions of the WDM optical network design problem

Economic Analysis of SONET/WDM UPSR and BLSR Ring Networks Using Traffic Grooming

We consider the traffic grooming problem for the design of SONET/WDM(Synchronous Optical NETwork/ Wavelength Division Multiplexing) ring networks. Given a physical network with ring topology and a set of traffic demands between pairs of nodes, we are to obtain a stack of rings with the objective of minimizing the number of ADMs installed at the nodes. This problem arises when a single ring capacity is not large enough to accommodate all the demands. As a solution method, an efficient algorithm based on the branch-and-price approach has been reported in the literature for the problem in which only unidirecional path switched ring (UPSR) was considered. In this study, we suggest integer programming models and the algorithms based on the same approach as the above one, considering two-fiber bidirectional line switched ring(BLSR/2), and BLSR/4 additionally. Using the results, we compare the number of required ADMs for all types of the ring architecture

An Efficient Scheme for Non-bifurcated Traffic Grooming in WDM Networks

In optical networks, non-bifurcated traffic grooming is known to be a difficult problem, intractable for large networks. One approach is to use the branch and price technique, using the Arc-Chain representation. In this approach the GUB decomposition and implicit column generation can be used to speed up the optimization process. Our objective is to further optimize this approach using Eta Factorization to avoid inverting the basis during each iteration of the revised simplex method

Characterization, design and re-optimization on multi-layer optical networks

L'augment de volum de tràfic IP provocat per l'increment de serveis multimèdia com HDTV o vídeo conferència planteja nous reptes als operadors de xarxa per tal de proveir transmissió de dades eficient. Tot i que les xarxes mallades amb multiplexació per divisió de longitud d'ona (DWDM) suporten connexions òptiques de gran velocitat, aquestes xarxes manquen de flexibilitat per suportar tràfic d’inferior granularitat, fet que provoca un pobre ús d'ample de banda. Per fer front al transport d'aquest tràfic heterogeni, les xarxes multicapa representen la millor solució. Les xarxes òptiques multicapa permeten optimitzar la capacitat mitjançant l'empaquetament de connexions de baixa velocitat dins de connexions òptiques de gran velocitat. Durant aquesta operació, es crea i modifica constantment una topologia virtual dinàmica gràcies al pla de control responsable d’aquestes operacions. Donada aquesta dinamicitat, un ús sub-òptim de recursos pot existir a la xarxa en un moment donat. En aquest context, una re-optimizació periòdica dels recursos utilitzats pot ser aplicada, millorant així l'ús de recursos. Aquesta tesi està dedicada a la caracterització, planificació, i re-optimització de xarxes òptiques multicapa de nova generació des d’un punt de vista unificat incloent optimització als nivells de capa física, capa òptica, capa virtual i pla de control. Concretament s'han desenvolupat models estadístics i de programació matemàtica i meta-heurístiques. Aquest objectiu principal s'ha assolit mitjançant cinc objectius concrets cobrint diversos temes oberts de recerca. En primer lloc, proposem una metodologia estadística per millorar el càlcul del factor Q en problemes d'assignació de ruta i longitud d'ona considerant interaccions físiques (IA-RWA). Amb aquest objectiu, proposem dos models estadístics per computar l'efecte XPM (el coll d'ampolla en termes de computació i complexitat) per problemes IA-RWA, demostrant la precisió d’ambdós models en el càlcul del factor Q en escenaris reals de tràfic. En segon lloc i fixant-nos a la capa òptica, presentem un nou particionament del conjunt de longituds d'ona que permet maximitzar, respecte el cas habitual, la quantitat de tràfic extra proveït en entorns de protecció compartida. Concretament, definim diversos models estadístics per estimar la quantitat de tràfic donat un grau de servei objectiu, i diferents models de planificació de xarxa amb l'objectiu de maximitzar els ingressos previstos i el valor actual net de la xarxa. Després de resoldre aquests problemes per xarxes reals, concloem que la nostra proposta maximitza ambdós objectius. En tercer lloc, afrontem el disseny de xarxes multicapa robustes davant de fallida simple a la capa IP/MPLS i als enllaços de fibra. Per resoldre aquest problema eficientment, proposem un enfocament basat en sobre-dimensionar l'equipament de la capa IP/MPLS i recuperar la connectivitat i el comparem amb la solució convencional basada en duplicar la capa IP/MPLS. Després de comparar solucions mitjançant models ILP i heurístiques, concloem que la nostra solució permet obtenir un estalvi significatiu en termes de costos de desplegament. Com a quart objectiu, introduïm un mecanisme adaptatiu per reduir l'ús de ports opto-electrònics (O/E) en xarxes multicapa sota escenaris de tràfic dinàmic. Una formulació ILP i diverses heurístiques són desenvolupades per resoldre aquest problema, que permet reduir significativament l’ús de ports O/E en temps molt curts. Finalment, adrecem el problema de disseny resilient del pla de control GMPLS. Després de proposar un nou model analític per quantificar la resiliència en topologies mallades de pla de control, usem aquest model per proposar un problema de disseny de pla de control. Proposem un procediment iteratiu lineal i una heurística i els usem per resoldre instàncies reals, arribant a la conclusió que es pot reduir significativament la quantitat d'enllaços del pla de control sense afectar la qualitat de servei a la xarxa.The explosion of IP traffic due to the increase of IP-based multimedia services such as HDTV or video conferencing poses new challenges to network operators to provide a cost-effective data transmission. Although Dense Wavelength Division Multiplexing (DWDM) meshed transport networks support high-speed optical connections, these networks lack the flexibility to support sub-wavelength traffic leading to poor bandwidth usage. To cope with the transport of that huge and heterogeneous amount of traffic, multilayer networks represent the most accepted architectural solution. Multilayer optical networks allow optimizing network capacity by means of packing several low-speed traffic streams into higher-speed optical connections (lightpaths). During this operation, a dynamic virtual topology is created and modified the whole time thanks to a control plane responsible for the establishment, maintenance, and release of connections. Because of this dynamicity, a suboptimal allocation of resources may exist at any time. In this context, a periodically resource reallocation could be deployed in the network, thus improving network resource utilization. This thesis is devoted to the characterization, planning, and re-optimization of next-generation multilayer networks from an integral perspective including physical layer, optical layer, virtual layer, and control plane optimization. To this aim, statistical models, mathematical programming models and meta-heuristics are developed. More specifically, this main objective has been attained by developing five goals covering different open issues. First, we provide a statistical methodology to improve the computation of the Q-factor for impairment-aware routing and wavelength assignment problems (IA-RWA). To this aim we propose two statistical models to compute the Cross-Phase Modulation variance (which represents the bottleneck in terms of computation time and complexity) in off-line and on-line IA-RWA problems, proving the accuracy of both models when computing Q-factor values in real traffic scenarios. Second and moving to the optical layer, we present a new wavelength partitioning scheme that allows maximizing the amount of extra traffic provided in shared path protected environments compared with current solutions. Specifically, we define several statistical models to estimate the traffic intensity given a target grade of service, and different network planning problems for maximizing the expected revenues and net present value. After solving these problems for real networks, we conclude that our proposed scheme maximizes both revenues and NPV. Third, we tackle the design of survivable multilayer networks against single failures at the IP/MPLS layer and WSON links. To efficiently solve this problem, we propose a new approach based on over-dimensioning IP/MPLS devices and lightpath connectivity and recovery and we compare it against the conventional solution based on duplicating backbone IP/MPLS nodes. After evaluating both approaches by means of ILP models and heuristic algorithms, we conclude that our proposed approach leads to significant CAPEX savings. Fourth, we introduce an adaptive mechanism to reduce the usage of opto-electronic (O/E) ports of IP/MPLS-over-WSON multilayer networks in dynamic scenarios. A ILP formulation and several heuristics are developed to solve this problem, which allows significantly reducing the usage of O/E ports in very short running times. Finally, we address the design of resilient control plane topologies in GMPLS-enabled transport networks. After proposing a novel analytical model to quantify the resilience in mesh control plane topologies, we use this model to propose a problem to design the control plane topology. An iterative model and a heuristic are proposed and used to solve real instances, concluding that a significant reduction in the number of control plane links can be performed without affecting the quality of service of the network

Optimization aspects of the reconfiguration problem in WDM networks

We propose an in-depth study of the reconfiguration problem in multi-fiber WDM networks. It consists in defining how to adapt the optical layer to changing traffic patterns. Our objective is to treat the problem globally. We consider arbitrary mesh topology, all-to-all traffic and multi-hop routing. However, we restrict ourselves to prevision: the traffic evolutions are foreseen. We propose a compact Mixed Integer Linear Programming model, allowing to solve medium instances. We define many metrics to evaluate the performance of a solution. We also propose some mathematical cuts and a lower bound for the problem. We make extensive experiments based on this model, in order to find out the influence of different parameters, such as the metric chosen or the cut formulation. To do so, many instances were solved with different networks

Reformulation and Decomposition Approaches for Traffic Routing in Optical Networks

International audienceWe consider a multi-layer network design model arising from a real-life telecommunication application where traffic routingdecisions imply the installation of expensive nodal equipment. Customer requests come in the form of bandwidthreservations for a given origin destination pair. Bandwidth demands are expressed as multiples of nominal granularities. Each request must be single-path routed. Grooming several requests on the same wavelength and multiplexing wavelengths in the same optical stream allow a more efficient use of network capacity. However, each addition or withdrawal of a request from a wavelength requires optical to electrical conversion and the use of cross-connect equipment with expensive ports of high densities. The objective is to minimize the number of required ports of the cross-connect equipment. We deal with backbone optical networks, therefore with networks with a moderate number of nodes (14 to 20) but thousands of requests. Further difficulties arise from the symmetries in wavelength assignment and traffic loading. Traditional multi-commodity network flowapproaches are not suited for this problem. Instead, four alternative models relying on Dantzig-Wolfe and/or Benders' decomposition areintroduced and compared. The formulations are strengthened using symmetry breaking restrictions, variable domain reduction, zero-onediscretization of integer variables, and cutting planes. The resulting dual bounds are compared to the values of primal solutions obtained through hierarchical optimization and rounding procedures. For realistic size instances, our best approaches provide solutions with optimality gap of approximately 5% on average in around two hours of computing time

Resilient virtual topologies in optical networks and clouds

Optical networks play a crucial role in the development of Internet by providing a high speed infrastructure to cope with the rapid expansion of high bandwidth demand applications such as video, HDTV, teleconferencing, cloud computing, and so on. Network virtualization has been proposed as a key enabler for the next generation networks and the future Internet because it allows diversification the underlying architecture of Internet and lets multiple heterogeneous network architectures coexist. Physical network failures often come from natural disasters or human errors, and thus cannot be fully avoided. Today, with the increase of network traffic and the popularity of virtualization and cloud computing, due to the sharing nature of network virtualization, one single failure in the underlying physical network can affect thousands of customers and cost millions of dollars in revenue. Providing resilience for virtual network topology over optical network infrastructure thus becomes of prime importance. This thesis focuses on resilient virtual topologies in optical networks and cloud computing. We aim at finding more scalable models to solve the problem of designing survivable logical topologies for more realistic and meaningful network instances while meeting the requirements on bandwidth, security, as well as other quality of service such as recovery time. To address the scalability issue, we present a model based on a column generation decomposition. We apply the cutset theorem with a decomposition framework and lazy constraints. We are able to solve for much larger network instances than the ones in literature. We extend the model to address the survivability problem in the context of optical networks where the characteristics of optical networks such as lightpaths and wavelength continuity and traffic grooming are taken into account. We analyze and compare the bandwidth requirement between the two main approaches in providing resiliency for logical topologies. In the first approach, called optical protection, the resilient mechanism is provided by the optical layer. In the second one, called logical restoration, the resilient mechanism is done at the virtual layer. Next, we extend the survivability problem into the context of cloud computing where the major complexity arises from the anycast principle. We are able to solve the problem for much larger network instances than in the previous studies. Moreover, our model is more comprehensive that takes into account other QoS criteria, such that recovery time and delay requirement

Efficient shared segment protection in optical networks

This thesis introduces a new shared segment protection scheme that ensures both node and link protection in an efficient manner in terms of cost. Although the segment protection scheme exhibits an interesting compromise between link and path protection schemes and attempts to encompass all their advantages, it has been much less explored than the other protection approaches. The proposed work investigates two different Shared Segment Protection (SSP) schemes: Basic Shared Segment Protection (BSSP) and a new segment protection, called Shared Segment Protection with segment Overlap (SSPO). For both BSSP and SSPO schemes, we propose two novel efficient and scalable ILP formulations, based on a column generation mathematical modeling. SSPO offers more advantages over BSSP as it ensures both node and link protections, in addition to shorter delays. It is not necessarily more expensive while BSSP ensures only link protection. Indeed, depending on the network topology and the traffic instances, it can be shown that neither of the two SSP schemes is dominant in terms of cost. The mathematical models have been solved using column generation techniques. Simulations have been conducted to validate the two segment protection models and to evaluate the performance of the two segment protection schemes under different traffic scenarios. In addition, we have estimated when an additional cost (and how much) is needed in order to ensure node protection