Advanced Column Generation Decompositions for Optimizing Provisioning Problems in Optical Networks

With the continued growth of Internet traffic, and the scarcity of the optical spectrum, there is a continuous need to optimize the usage of this resource. In the process of provisioning optical networks, telecommunication operators must deal with combinatorial optimization problems that are NP-complete. One of these problems is the Routing and Wavelength Allocation (RWA) which considers the fixed frequency grid, and the Routing and Spectrum Allocation (RSA) which is defined for the flexible frequency grid. While the flexible frequency grid paradigm attempted to improve the spectrum usage, the RSA problem has an additional spectrum dimension that makes it harder than the RWA problem. In this thesis, in continuation of the previous studies, and using the advanced techniques of Integer Linear Programing, we propose a Column Generation algorithm based on a Lightpath decomposition which we implement for both the RWA and the RSA problems. This algorithm proved to be the most efficient so far producing optimal or near optimal solutions, and improving the computation times by two orders of magnitude on average. This algorithm is based on the approach of finding the right decomposition scheme as to be able to solve the Pricing Problem in a polynomial time. This approach can be used in other optimization problems. In addition, we consider the same Configuration decomposition as the previous studies, and we propose an algorithm based on Nested Column Generation. We implemented this algorithm for both the RSA and the RWA problems, which led to a considerable improvement on the previous algorithms that use the same Configuration decomposition. This Nested Column Generation approach can be adopted in other optimization problems

Towards a Virtualized Next Generation Internet

A promising solution to overcome the Internet ossification is network virtualization in which Internet Service Providers (ISPs) are decoupled into two tiers: service providers (SPs), and infrastructure providers (InPs). The former maintain and customize virtual network(s) to meet the service requirement of end-users, which is mapped to the physical network infrastructure that is managed and deployed by the latter via the Virtual Network Embedding (VNE) process. VNE consists of two major components: node assignment, and link mapping, which can be shown to be NP-Complete. In the first part of the dissertation, we present a path-based ILP model for the VNE problem. Our solution employs a branch-and-bound framework to resolve the integrity constraints, while embedding the column generation process to effectively obtain the lower bound for branch pruning. Different from existing approaches, the proposed solution can either obtain an optimal solution or a near-optimal solution with guarantee on the solution quality. A common strategy in VNE algorithm design is to decompose the problem into two sequential sub-problems: node assignment (NA) and link mapping (LM). With this approach, it is inexorable to sacrifice the solution quality since the NA is not holistic and not-reversible. In the second part, we are motivated to answer the question: Is it possible to maintain the simplicity of the Divide-and-Conquer strategy while still achieving optimality? Our answer is based on a decomposition framework supported by the Primal-Dual analysis of the path-based ILP model. This dissertation also attempts to address issues in two frontiers of network virtualization: survivability, and integration of optical substrate. In the third part, we address the survivable network embedding (SNE) problem from a network flow perspective, considering both splittable and non-splittable flows. In addition, the explosive growth of the Internet traffic calls for the support of a bandwidth abundant optical substrate, despite the extra dimensions of complexity caused by the heterogeneities of optical resources, and the physical feature of optical transmission. In this fourth part, we present a holistic view of motivation, architecture, and challenges on the way towards a virtualized optical substrate that supports network virtualization

Loss-free architectures in optical burst switched networks for a reliable and dynamic optical layer

For the last three decades, the optical fiber has been a quite systematic response to dimensioning issues in the Internet. Originally restricted to long haul networks, the optical network has gradually descended the network hierarchy to discard the bottlenecks. In the 90's, metropolitan networks became optical. Today, optical fibers are deployed in access networks and reach the users. In a near future, besides wireless access and local area networks, all networks in the network hierarchy may be made of fibers, in order to support current services (HDTV) and the emergence of new applications (3D-TV newly commercialized in USA). The deployment of such greedy applications will initiate an upward upgrade. The first step may be the Metropolitan Area Networks (MANs), not only because of the traffic growth, but also because of the variety of served applications, each with a specific traffic profile. The current optical layer is of mitigated efficiency, dealing with unforeseen events. The lack of reactivity is mainly due to the slow switching devices: any on-line decision of the optical layer is delayed by the configuration of the. devices. When the optical network has been extended in the MANs, a lot of efforts has been deployed to improve the reactivity of the optical layer. The Optical Circuit Switching paradigm (OCS) has been improved but it ultimately relies on off-line configuration of the optical devices. Optical Burst Switching (OBS) can be viewed as a highly flexible evolution of OCS, that operates five order of magnitude faster. Within this 'architecture, the loss-free guaranty can be abandoned in order to improve the reactivity of the optical layer. Indeed, reliability and reactivity appear as antagonists properties and getting closer to either of them mitigates the other. This thesis aims at proposing a solution to achieve reliable transmission over a dynamic optical layer. Focusing on OBS networks, our objective is to solve the contention issue without mitigating the reactivity. After the consideration of contention avoidance mechanisms with routing constraints similar as in OCS networks, we investigate the reactive solutions that intend to solve the contentions. None of the available contention resolution scheme can ensure the 100% efficiency that leads to loss-free transmission. An attractive solution is the recourse to electrical buffering, but it is notoriously disregarded because (1) it may highly impact the delays and (2) loss can occur due to buffer overflows. The efficiency of translucent architectures thus highly depends on the buffer availability, that can be improved by reducing the time spent in the buffers and the contention rate. We show that traffic grooming can highly reduce the emission delay, and consequently the buffer occupancy. In a first architecture, traffic grooming is enabled by a translucent core node architecture, capable to re-aggregate incoming bursts. The re-aggregation is mandatory to "de-groom" the bursts in the core network (i.e., to demultiplex the content of a burst). On the one hand, the re-aggregation highly reduces the loss probability, but on the other hand, it absorbs the benefits of traffic grooming. Finally, dynamic access to re-aggregation for contention resolution, despite the significant reduction of the contention rate, dramatically impacts the end-to-end delay and the memory requirement. We thus propose a second architecture, called CAROBS, that exploits traffic grooming in the optical domain. This framework is fully dynamic and can be used jointly with our translucent architecture that performs re-aggregation. As the (de)grooming operations do not involve re-aggregation, the translucent module can be restricted to contention resolution. As a result, the volume of data submitted to re-aggregation is drastically reduced and loss-free transmission can be reached with the same reactivity, end-to-end delay and memory requirement as a native OBS networ

Resource Allocation for Periodic Traffic Demands in WDM Networks

Recent research has clearly established that holding-time-aware routing and wavelength assignment (RWA) schemes lead to significant improvements in resource utilization for scheduled traffic. By exploiting the knowledge of the demand holding times, this thesis proposes new traffic grooming techniques to achieve more efficient resource utilization with the goal of minimizing resources such as bandwidth, wavelength channels, transceivers, and energy consumption. This thesis also introduces a new model, the segmented sliding window model, where a demand may be decomposed into two or more components and each component can be sent separately. This technique is suitable for applications where continuous data transmission is not strictly required such as large file transfers for grid computing. Integer linear program (ILP) formulations and an efficient heuristic are put forward for resource allocation under the proposed segmented sliding window model. It is shown that the proposed model can lead to significantly higher throughput, even over existing holding-time-aware models

Efficient Spectrum Utilization in Large-Scale RWA and RSA Problems

While the Routing and Wavelength Assignment (RWA) problem has been widely studied, very few studies attempt to solve realistic size instances, namely, with 100 wavelengths per fiber and a few hundred nodes. Indeed, state of the art is closer to around 20 nodes and 30 wavelengths. In this study, we are interested in reducing the gap between realistic data sets and testbed instances, using exact methods. We propose different algorithms that lead to solve exactly or near exactly much larger instances than in the literature, with up to 150 wavelengths and 90 nodes. Extensive numerical experiences are conducted on both the static and the dynamic cases. For the latter, we investigate how much bandwidth is wasted when no lightpath re-arrangement is allowed, and compare it with the number of lightpath re-arrangement it requires in order to fully maximize the grade of service. Results show that the amount of lightpath re-arrangement remains very small in comparison to the amount of wasted bandwidth if not done. The Routing and Spectrum Assignment (RSA) problem is a much more difficult problem than RWA, considered in elastic optical networks. Although investigated extensively, there is still a gap between the size of the instances that can be solved using the current heuristic or exact algorithms, and the size of the instances arising in the industry. As the second objective of this study, we aim to reduce the gap between the two, using a new mathematical modeling, and compare its performance with the best previous algorithms/models on realistic data instances

p-Cycle Based Protection in WDM Mesh Networks

Abstract p-Cycle Based Protection in WDM Mesh Networks Honghui Li, Ph.D. Concordia University, 2012 WDM techniques enable single fiber to carry huge amount of data. However, optical WDM networks are prone to failures, and therefore survivability is a very important requirement in the design of optical networks. In the context of network survivability, p-cycle based schemes attracted extensive research interests as they well balance the recovery speed and the capacity efficiency. Towards the design of p-cycle based survivableWDM mesh networks, some issues still need to be addressed. The conventional p-cycle design models and solution methods suffers from scalability issues. Besides, most studies on the design of p-cycle based schemes only cope with single link failures without any concern about single node failures. Moreover, loop backs may exist in the recovery paths along p-cycles, which lead to unnecessary stretching of the recovery path lengths. This thesis investigates the scalable and efficient design of segment p-cycles against single link failures. The optimization models and their solutions rely on large-scale optimization techniques, namely, Column Generation (CG) modeling and solution, where segment pcycle candidates are dynamically generated during the optimization process. To ensure full node protection in the context of link p-cycles, we propose an efficient protection scheme, called node p-cycles, and develop a scalable optimization design model. It is shown that, depending on the network topology, node p-cycles sometimes outperform path p-cycles in iii terms of capacity efficiency. Also, an enhanced segment p-cycle scheme is proposed, entitled segment Np-cycles, for full link and node protection. Again, the CG-based optimization models are developed for the design of segment Np-cycles. Two objectives are considered, minimizing the spare capacity usage and minimizing the CAPEX cost. It is shown that segment Np-cycles can ensure full node protection with marginal extra cost in comparison with segment p-cycles for link protection. Segment Np-cycles provide faster recovery speed than path p-cycles although they are slightly more costly than path p-cycles. Furthermore, we propose the shortcut p-cycle scheme, i.e., p-cycles free of loop backs for full node and link protection, in addition to shortcuts in the protection paths. A CG-based optimization model for the design of shortcut p-cycles is formulated as well. It is shown that, for full node protection, shortcut p-cycles have advantages over path p-cycles with respect to capacity efficiency and recovery speed. We have studied a whole sequence of protection schemes from link p-cycles to path p-cycles, and concluded that the best compromise is the segment Np-cycle scheme for full node protection with respect to capacity efficiency and recovery time. Therefore, this thesis offers to network operators several interesting alternatives to path p-cycles in the design of survivable WDM mesh networks against any single link/node failures

Optimizing resource allocation in next-generation optical access networks

To meet rapidly increasing traffic demands caused by the popularization of Internet and the spouting of bandwidth-demanding applications, Passive Optical Networks (PONs) exploit the potential capacities of optical fibers, and are becoming promising future-proof access network technologies. On the other hand, for a broader coverage area and higher data rate, integrated optical and wireless access is becoming a future trend for wireless access. This thesis investigates three next-generation access networks: Time Division Multiplexing (TDM) PONs, Wavelength Division Multiplexing (WDM) PONs, and WDM Radio-Over-Fiber (RoF) Picocellular networks. To address resource allocation problems in these three networks, this thesis first investigates respective characteristics of these networks, and then presents solutions to address respective challenging problems in these networks. In particular, three main problems are addressed: arbitrating time allocation among different applications to guarantee user quality of experience (QoE) in TDM PONs, scheduling wavelengths optimally in WDM PONs, and jointly allocating fiber and radio resources in WDM RoF Picocellular networks. In-depth theoretical analysis and extensive simulations have been performed in evaluating and demonstrating the performances of the proposed schemes

Cross-layer modeling and optimization of next-generation internet networks

Scaling traditional telecommunication networks so that they are able to cope with the volume of future traffic demands and the stringent European Commission (EC) regulations on emissions would entail unaffordable investments. For this very reason, the design of an innovative ultra-high bandwidth power-efficient network architecture is nowadays a bold topic within the research community. So far, the independent evolution of network layers has resulted in isolated, and hence, far-from-optimal contributions, which have eventually led to the issues today's networks are facing such as inefficient energy strategy, limited network scalability and flexibility, reduced network manageability and increased overall network and customer services costs. Consequently, there is currently large consensus among network operators and the research community that cross-layer interaction and coordination is fundamental for the proper architectural design of next-generation Internet networks. This thesis actively contributes to the this goal by addressing the modeling, optimization and performance analysis of a set of potential technologies to be deployed in future cross-layer network architectures. By applying a transversal design approach (i.e., joint consideration of several network layers), we aim for achieving the maximization of the integration of the different network layers involved in each specific problem. To this end, Part I provides a comprehensive evaluation of optical transport networks (OTNs) based on layer 2 (L2) sub-wavelength switching (SWS) technologies, also taking into consideration the impact of physical layer impairments (PLIs) (L0 phenomena). Indeed, the recent and relevant advances in optical technologies have dramatically increased the impact that PLIs have on the optical signal quality, particularly in the context of SWS networks. Then, in Part II of the thesis, we present a set of case studies where it is shown that the application of operations research (OR) methodologies in the desing/planning stage of future cross-layer Internet network architectures leads to the successful joint optimization of key network performance indicators (KPIs) such as cost (i.e., CAPEX/OPEX), resources usage and energy consumption. OR can definitely play an important role by allowing network designers/architects to obtain good near-optimal solutions to real-sized problems within practical running times

Enabling Technology in Optical Fiber Communications: From Device, System to Networking

This book explores the enabling technology in optical fiber communications. It focuses on the state-of-the-art advances from fundamental theories, devices, and subsystems to networking applications as well as future perspectives of optical fiber communications. The topics cover include integrated photonics, fiber optics, fiber and free-space optical communications, and optical networking