Optical Networks and Interconnects

The rapid evolution of communication technologies such as 5G and beyond, rely on optical networks to support the challenging and ambitious requirements that include both capacity and reliability. This chapter begins by giving an overview of the evolution of optical access networks, focusing on Passive Optical Networks (PONs). The development of the different PON standards and requirements aiming at longer reach, higher client count and delivered bandwidth are presented. PON virtualization is also introduced as the flexibility enabler. Triggered by the increase of bandwidth supported by access and aggregation network segments, core networks have also evolved, as presented in the second part of the chapter. Scaling the physical infrastructure requires high investment and hence, operators are considering alternatives to optimize the use of the existing capacity. This chapter introduces different planning problems such as Routing and Spectrum Assignment problems, placement problems for regenerators and wavelength converters, and how to offer resilience to different failures. An overview of control and management is also provided. Moreover, motivated by the increasing importance of data storage and data processing, this chapter also addresses different aspects of optical data center interconnects. Data centers have become critical infrastructure to operate any service. They are also forced to take advantage of optical technology in order to keep up with the growing capacity demand and power consumption. This chapter gives an overview of different optical data center network architectures as well as some expected directions to improve the resource utilization and increase the network capacity

Architecture and sparse placement of limited-wavelength converters for optical networks

Equipping all nodes of a large optical network with full conversion capability is prohibitively costly. To improve performance at reduced cost, sparse converter placement algorithms are used to select a subset of nodes for full-conversion deployment. Further cost reduction can be obtained by deploying only limited conversion capability in the selected nodes. We present a limited wavelength converter placement algorithm based on the k-minimum dominating set (k-MDS) concept. We propose three different cost-effective optical switch designs using the technologically feasible nontunable optical multiplexers. These three switch designs are flexible node sharing, strict node sharing, and static mapping. Compared to the full search heuristic of O(N-3) complexity based on ranking nodes by blocking percentages, our algorithm not only has a better time complexity O(RN2), where R is the number of disjoint sets provided by k-MIDS, but also avoids the local minimum problem. The performance benefit of our algorithm is demonstrated by network simulation with the U.S Long Haul topology having 28 nodes (91 is 5) and the National Science Foundation (NSF) network having 16 nodes (91 is 4). Our simulation considers the case when the traffic is not uniformly distributed between node pairs in the network using a weighted placement approach, referred to as k-WMDS. From the optical network management point of view, our results also show that the limited conversion capability can achieve performance very close to that of the full conversion capability, while not only decreasing the optical switch cost but also enhancing its fault tolerance

Wavelengths switching and allocation algorithms in multicast technology using m-arity tree networks topology

This thesis was submitted for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy and awarded by Brunel University London.In this thesis, the m-arity tree networks have been investigated to derive equations for their nodes, links and required wavelengths. The relationship among all parameters such as leaves nodes, destinations, paths and wavelengths has been found. Three situations have been explored, firstly when just one server and the leaves nodes are destinations, secondly when just one server and all other nodes are destinations, thirdly when all nodes are sources and destinations in the same time. The investigation has included binary, ternary, quaternary and finalized by general equations for all m-arity tree networks. Moreover, a multicast technology is analysed in this thesis to transmit data carried by specific wavelengths to several clients. Wavelengths multicast switching is well examined to propose split-convert-split-convert (S-C-S-C) multicast switch which consists of light splitters and wavelengths converters. It has reduced group delay by 13% and 29% compared with split-convert (S-C) and split-convert-split (S-C-S) multicast switches respectively. The proposed switch has also increased the received signal power by a significant value which reaches 28% and 26.92% compared with S-C-S and S-C respectively. In addition, wavelengths allocation algorithms in multicast technology are proposed in this thesis using tree networks topology. Distributed scheme is adopted by placing wavelength assignment controller in all parents’ nodes. Two distributed algorithms proposed shortest wavelength assignment (SWA) and highest number of destinations with shortest wavelength assignment (HND-SWA) algorithms to increase the received signal power, decrease group delay and reduce dispersion. The performance of the SWA algorithm was almost better or same as HND-SWA related to the power, dispersion and group delay but they are always better than other two algorithms. The required numbers of wavelengths and their utilised converters have been examined and calculated for the researched algorithms. The HND-SWA has recorded the superior performance compared with other algorithms. It has reduced number of utilised wavelengths up to about 19% and minimized number of the used wavelengths converters up to about 29%. Finally, the centralised scheme is discussed and researched and proposed a centralised highest number of destinations (CHND) algorithm with static and dynamic scenarios to reduce network capacity decreasing (Cd) after each wavelengths allocation. The CDHND has reduced (Cd) by about 16.7% compared with the other algorithms

Investigation of the tolerance of wavelength-routed optical networks to traffic load variations.

This thesis focuses on the performance of circuit-switched wavelength-routed optical network with unpredictable traffic pattern variations. This characteristic of optical networks is termed traffic forecast tolerance. First, the increasing volume and heterogeneous nature of data and voice traffic is discussed. The challenges in designing robust optical networks to handle unpredictable traffic statistics are described. Other work relating to the same research issues are discussed. A general methodology to quantify the traffic forecast tolerance of optical networks is presented. A traffic model is proposed to simulate dynamic, non-uniform loads, and used to test wavelength-routed optical networks considering numerous network topologies. The number of wavelengths required and the effect of the routing and wavelength allocation algorithm are investigated. A new method of quantifying the network tolerance is proposed, based on the calculation of the increase in the standard deviation of the blocking probabilities with increasing traffic load non-uniformity. The performance of different networks are calculated and compared. The relationship between physical features of the network topology and traffic forecast tolerance is investigated. A large number of randomly connected networks with different sizes were assessed. It is shown that the average lightpath length and the number of wavelengths required for full interconnection of the nodes in static operation both exhibit a strong correlation with the network tolerance, regardless of the degree of load non-uniformity. Finally, the impact of wavelength conversion on network tolerance is investigated. Wavelength conversion significantly increases the robustness of optical networks to unpredictable traffic variations. In particular, two sparse wavelength conversion schemes are compared and discussed: distributed wavelength conversion and localized wavelength conversion. It is found that the distributed wavelength conversion scheme outperforms localized wavelength conversion scheme, both with uniform loading and in terms of the network tolerance. The results described in this thesis can be used for the analysis and design of reliable WDM optical networks that are robust to future traffic demand variations

Design of power efficient multicast algorithms for sparse split WDM networks

Recent years witnessed tremendous increase in data traffic as new Internet applications were launched. Optical networks employing recent technologies such as DWDM and EDFA`s emerged as the most prominent and most promising solutions in terms of their ability to keep with the demand on bandwidth. However for a class of applications bandwidth is not the only important requirement, These applications require efficient multicast operations. They include data bases, audio/video conferencing, distributed computing etc. Multicasting in the optical domain however has its own unique set of problems. First, an optical signal can be split among the outputs of a node but the power due to splitting can be significantly reduced. Second, the hardware for split nodes is relatively expensive and therefore we cannot afford to employ it at every node. Third, there are other sources of losses such as attenuation losses and multiplexing /de-multiplexing losses. This thesis deals with the important issue of Power Efficient multicast in WDM optical networks. We report three new algorithms for constructing power efficient multicast trees and forests. Our algorithms are the first to take into account all possible sources of power losses while constructing the trees. We utilize the techniques of backtracking and tree pruning judiciously to achieve very power efficient multicast trees. The first two algorithms use modified versions of the shortest path heuristic to build the tree. The third algorithm however, uses a novel concept and considers power at every tree building step. In this algorithm, the order of inclusion of destination nodes into the tree is based on the power distribution in the tree and not distance. All three algorithms prune the trees if the power levels at the destinations are not acceptable. The performance of these three algorithms under several constraints is studied on several irregular topologies. All three algorithms reported in this work produce significant improvements in signal strength at the set of destinations over the existing multicast algorithms. Numerical results show that our third algorithm outperforms the first two algorithms as well as the existing multicasting algorithms

Optimal multicast routing using genetic algorithm for WDM optical networks

We consider the multicast routing problem for large-scale wavelength division multiplexing (WDM) optical networks where transmission re-quests are established by point-to-multipoint connections. To realize multicast routing in WDM optical networks, some nodes need to havelight (optical) splitting capability. A node with splitting capability can forward an incoming message to more than one output link. We con-sider the problem of minimizing the number of split-capable nodes in the network for a given set of multicast requests. The maximum number of wavelengths that can be used is specified a priori. A genetic algorithm is proposed that exploits the combination of alternative shortest paths for the given multicast requests. This algorithm is examined for two realis-tic networks constructed based on the locations of major cities in Ibaraki Prefecture and those in Kanto District in Japan. Our experimental re-sults show that the proposed algorithm can reduce more than 10% of split-capable nodes compared with the case where the split-capable node placement optimization is not performed while the specified number of wavelengths is not exceeded.Includes bibliographical reference

High-capacity 5G fronthaul networks based on optical space division multiplexing

\u3cp\u3eThe introduction of 5G mobile networks, bringing multi-Gbit/s user data rates and reduced latency, opens new opportunities for media generation, transport and distribution, as well as for new immersive media applications. The expected use of millimeter-wave carriers and the strong network densification resulting from a much reduced cell size--which enable the expected performance of 5G--pose major challenges to the fronthaul network. Space division multiplexing (SDM) in the optical domain has been suggested for ultra-high capacity fronthaul networks that naturally support different classes of fronthaul traffic and further enable the use of analog radio-over-fiber and advanced technologies, such as optical beamforming. This paper discusses the introduction of SDM with multi-core fibers in the fronthaul network as suggested by the blueSPACE project, regarding both digitized and analog radio-over-fiber fronthaul transport as well as the introduction of optical beamforming for high-capacity millimeter-wave radio access. Analog and digitized radio-over-fiber are discussed in a scenario featuring parallel fronthaul for different radio access technologies, showcasing their differences and potential when combined with SDM.\u3c/p\u3

Design of Routers for Optical Burst Switched Networks

Optical Burst Switching (OBS) is an experimental network technology that enables the construction of very high capacity routers using optical data paths and electronic control. In this dissertation, we study the design of network components that are needed to build an OBS network. Specifically, we study the design of the switches that form the optical data path through the network. An OBS network that switches data across wavelength channels requires wave-length converting switches to construct an OBS router. We study one particular design of wavelength converting switches that uses tunable lasers and wavelength grating routers. This design is interesting because wavelength grating routers are passive devices and are much less complex and hence less expensive than optical crossbars. We show how the routing problem for these switches can be formulated as a combinatorial puzzle or game, in which the design of the game board determines key performance characteristics of the switch. In this disertation, we use this formu-lation to facilitate the design of switches and associated routing strategies with good performance. We then introduce time sliced optical burst switching (TSOBS), a variant of OBS that switches data in the time domain rather that the wavelength domain. This eliminates the need for wavelength converters, the largest single cost component of systems that switch in the wavelength domain. We study the performance of TSOBS networks and discuss various design issues. One of the main components that is needed to build a TSOBS router is an optical time slot interchanger (OTSI). We explore various design options for OTSIs. Finally, we discuss the issues involved in the design of network interfaces that transmit the data from hosts that use legacy protocols into a TSOBS network. Ag-gregation and load balancing are the main issues that determine the performance of a TSOBS network and we develop and evaluate methods for both