Multi-layer survivability in IP-over-WDM networks

Ph.DDOCTOR OF PHILOSOPH

End-to-end provisioning in multi-domain/multi-layer networks

The last decade has seen many advances in high-speed networking technologies. At the Layer 1 fiber-optic level, dense wavelength division multiplexing (DWDM) has seen fast growth in long-haul backbone/metro sectors. At the Layer 1.5 level, revamped next-generation SONET/SDH (NGS) has gained strong traction in the metro space, as a highly flexible sub-rate\u27 aggregation and grooming solution. Meanwhile, ubiquitous Ethernet (Layer 2) and IP (Layer 3) technologies have also seen the introduction of new quality of service (QoS) paradigms via the differentiated services (Diff-Serv) and integrated services (Intserv) frameworks. In recent years, various control provisioning standards have also been developed to provision these new networks, e.g., via efforts within the IETF, ITU-T, and OIF organizations. As these networks technologies gain traction, there is an increasing need to internetwork multiple domains operating at different technology layers, e.g., IP, Ethernet, SONET, DWDM. However, most existing studies have only looked at single domain networks or multiple domains operating at the same technology layer. As a result, there is now a growing level of interest in developing expanded control solutions for multi-domain/multi-layer networks, i.e., IP-SONET-DWDM. Now given the increase in the number of inter-connected domains, it is difficult for a single entity to maintain complete \u27global\u27 information across all domains. Hence, related solutions must pursue a distributed approach to handling multi-domain/multi-layer problem. Namely, key provisions are needed in the area of inter- domain routing, path computation, and signaling. The work in this thesis addresses these very challenges. Namely, a hierarchical routing framework is first developed to incorporate the multiple link types/granularities encountered in different network domains. Commensurate topology abstraction algorithms and update strategies are then introduced to help condense domain level state and propagate global views. Finally, distributed path computation and signaling setup schemes are developed to leverage the condensed global state information and make intelligent connection routing decisions. The work leverages heavily from graph theory concepts and also addresses the inherent distributed grooming dimension of multi-layer networks. The performance of the proposed framework and algorithms is studied using discrete event simulation techniques. Specifically, a range of multi-domain/multi-layer network topologies are designed and tested. Findings show that the propagation of inter-domain tunneled link state has a huge impact on connection blocking performance, lowering inter-domain connection blocking rates by a notable amount. More importantly, these gains are achieved without any notable increase in inter-domain routing loads. Furthermore, the results also show that topology abstraction is most beneficial at lower network load settings, and when used in conjunction with load-balancing routing.\u2

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

SLA Formulation for Squeezed Protection in Elastic Optical Networks Considering the Modulation Format

In spectrum-sliced elastic optical path networks (SLICE), the lightpath bandwidth is variable, and the virtual topology overlay on a physical topology shall be designed to optimize the spectrum utilization. Under static traffic, SLICE networks are typically designed through a mixed integer linear programming (MILP) with the aim of minimizing the spectrum utilization. In this paper, a new MILP formulation for protection in SLICE networks is proposed, which uses the concept of bandwidth squeezing and grooming to guarantee a minimum agreed bandwidth for each source–destination pair in the surviving bandwidth. The route for each demand on the physical topology is determined by balance equations together with physical layer constraints in the formulation, so that no pre-calculated routes are required and the modulation format of each established lightpath may be chosen with enough quality of transmission and to save network spectrum. Therefore, the proposed formulation jointly solves the virtual topology design and physical topology design problems. The first results evaluate the effectiveness of the MILP formulation for two small networks when connections are under different service-level agreement (SLA) requirements and are provisioned by an appropriate protection scheme and different modulation formats. Due to the NP-hard nature of the proposed MILP formulation, a heuristic algorithm for moderately large networks is also proposed. Case studies are carried out to analyze the basic properties of the formulation and the performance of the proposed heuristic. With the proposed formulation, it is possible to identify the configurations that ensure minimum spectrum occupation with different kinds of protection for each lightpath. Different kinds of modulation formats are considered and contrasted to the benchmark case of a single modulation format and using the same kind of protection for all lightpaths

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

Integrated dynamic routing of restorable connections in IP/WDM networks

Ph.DDOCTOR OF PHILOSOPH

Disaster Resilient Optical Core Networks

During the past few years, the number of catastrophic disasters has increased and its impact sometimes incapacitates the infrastructures within a region. The communication network infrastructure is one of the affected systems during these events. Thus, building a resilient network backbone is essential due to the big role of networks during disaster recovery operations. In this thesis, the research efforts in building a disaster-resilient network are reviewed and open issues related to building disaster-resilient networks are discussed. Large size disasters not necessarily impact the communication networks, but instead it can stimulate events that cause network performance degradation. In this regard, two open challenges that arise after disasters are considered one is the short-term capacity exhaustion and the second is the power outage. First, the post-disaster traffic floods phenomena is considered. The impact of the traffic floods on the optical core network performance is studied. Five mitigation approaches are proposed to serve these floods and minimise the incurred blocking. The proposed approaches explore different technologies such as excess or overprovisioned capacity exploitation, traffic filtering, protection paths rerouting, rerouting all traffic and finally using the degrees of freedom offered by differentiated services. The mitigation approaches succeeded in reducing the disaster induced traffic blocking. Second, advance reservation provisioning in an energy-efficient approach is developed. Four scenarios are considered to minimise power consumption. The scenarios exploit the flexibility provided by the sliding-window advance reservation requests. This flexibility is studied through scheduling and rescheduling scenarios. The proposed scenarios succeeded in minimising the consumed power. Third, the sliding-window flexibility is exploited for the objective of minimising network blocking during post-disaster traffic floods. The scheduling and rescheduling scenarios are extended to overcome the capacity exhaustion and improve the network blocking. The proposed schemes minimised the incurred blocking during traffic floods by exploiting sliding window. Fourth, building blackout resilient networks is proposed. The network performance during power outages is evaluated. A remedy approach is suggested for maximising network lifetime during blackouts. The approach attempts to reduce the required backup power supply while minimising network outages due to limited energy production. The results show that the mitigation approach succeeds in keeping the network alive during a blackout while minimising the required backup power