Network Virtualization Over Elastic Optical Networks: A Survey of Allocation Algorithms

Network virtualization has emerged as a paradigm for cloud computing services by providing key functionalities such as abstraction of network resources kept hidden to the cloud service user, isolation of different cloud computing applications, flexibility in terms of resources granularity, and on‐demand setup/teardown of service. In parallel, flex‐grid (also known as elastic) optical networks have become an alternative to deal with the constant traffic growth. These advances have triggered research on network virtualization over flex‐grid optical networks. Effort has been focused on the design of flexible and virtualized devices, on the definition of network architectures and on virtual network allocation algorithms. In this chapter, a survey on the virtual network allocation algorithms over flexible‐grid networks is presented. Proposals are classified according to a taxonomy made of three main categories: performance metrics, operation conditions and the type of service offered to users. Based on such classification, this work also identifies open research areas as multi‐objective optimization approaches, distributed architectures, meta‐heuristics, reconfiguration and protection mechanisms for virtual networks over elastic optical networks

Modulation-Adaptive Link-Disjoint Path Selection Model for 1 + 1 Protected Elastic Optical Networks

In elastic optical networks (EONs), an appropriate modulation technique is adapted according to the distance of an optical path. A robust modulation technique with a large number of spectrum slots is considered for longer distance optical paths, and a less robust modulation technique with a small number of spectrum slots is used for shorter distance optical paths. When an optical path is configured, the number of required spectrum slots is determined based on the nonlinear relationship between the optical path length and the number of utilized spectrum slots. Minimizing the total path lengths does not always minimize the total number of required spectrum slots for configuring an optical path, which decreases the spectrum utilization. This paper introduces a modulation-adaptive link-disjoint path selection model by considering a step function based on realistic modulation formats in order to minimize the total number of utilized spectrum slots in 1 + 1 protected EONs. We formulate the modulation-adaptive link-disjoint path selection problem as an integer linear programming (ILP). We prove that the modulation-adaptive link-disjoint path selection problem is NP-complete. By using an optimization solver, we solve the ILP problem for different backbone networks, namely, Japan Photonic Network (JPN48), German 17 Network, and COST 239 Network, within a practical time. Numerical results obtained from performance evaluation indicate that the introduced model reduces the number of utilized spectrum slots compared to the conventional schemes

Routing, Modulation and Spectrum Assignment Algorithm Using Multi-Path Routing and Best-Fit

Producción CientíficaElastic Optical Networks (EONs) are a promising optical technology to deal with the ever-increasing traffic and the vast number of connected devices of the next generation of the Internet, associated to paradigms like the Internet of Things (IoT), the Tactile Internet or the Industry 4.0, to name just a few. In this kind of optical network, each optical circuit or lightpath is provisioned by means of superchannels of variable bandwidth. In this manner, only the necessary bandwidth to accommodate the demand is allocated, improving the spectrum usage. When establishing a connection, the EON control layer determines the modulation format to be used and allocates a portion of the spectrum in a sequence of fibers from the source to the destination node providing the user-demanded bandwidth. This is known as the routing, modulation level and spectrum assignment (RMSA) problem. In this work, we firstly review the most important contributions in that area, and then, we propose a novel RMSA algorithm, multi-path best-fit (MP-BF), which uses a split spectrum multi-path strategy together with a spectrum assignment technique (best-fit), and which jointly exploit the flexibility of EONs. A simulation study has been conducted comparing the performance of EONs when using MP-BF with other proposals from the literature. The results of this study show that, by using MP-BF, the network can increase its performance in terms of lightpath request blocking ratio and supported traffic load, without affecting the energy per bit or the computation time required to find a solution

Virtual Network Embedding with Path-based Latency Guarantees in Elastic Optical Networks

Elastic Optical Network (EON) virtualization has recently emerged as an enabling technology for 5G network slicing. A fundamental problem in EON slicing (known as Virtual Network Embedding (VNE)) is how to efficiently map a virtual network (VN) on a substrate EON characterized by elastic transponders and flexible grid. Since a number of 5G services will have strict latency requirements, the VNE problem in EONs must be solved while guaranteeing latency targets. In existing literature, latency has always been modeled as a constraint applied on the virtual links of the VN. In contrast, we argue in favor of an alternate modeling that constrains the latency of virtual paths. Constraining latency over virtual paths (vs. over virtual links) poses additional modeling and algorithmic challenges to the VNE problem, but allows us to capture end-to-end service requirements. In this thesis, we first model latency in an EON by identifying the different factors that contribute to it. We formulate the VNE problem with latency guarantees as an Integer Linear Program (ILP) and propose a heuristic solution that can scale to large problem instances. We evaluated our proposed solutions using real network topologies and realistic transmission configurations under different scenarios and observed that, for a given VN request, latency constraints can be guaranteed by accepting a modest increase in network resource utilization. Latency constraints instead showed a higher impact on VN blocking ratio in dynamic scenarios

Software Defined Applications in Cellular and Optical Networks

abstract: Small wireless cells have the potential to overcome bottlenecks in wireless access through the sharing of spectrum resources. A novel access backhaul network architecture based on a Smart Gateway (Sm-GW) between the small cell base stations, e.g., LTE eNBs, and the conventional backhaul gateways, e.g., LTE Servicing/Packet Gateways (S/P-GWs) has been introduced to address the bottleneck. The Sm-GW flexibly schedules uplink transmissions for the eNBs. Based on software defined networking (SDN) a management mechanism that allows multiple operator to flexibly inter-operate via multiple Sm-GWs with a multitude of small cells has been proposed. This dissertation also comprehensively survey the studies that examine the SDN paradigm in optical networks. Along with the PHY functional split improvements, the performance of Distributed Converged Cable Access Platform (DCCAP) in the cable architectures especially for the Remote-PHY and Remote-MACPHY nodes has been evaluated. In the PHY functional split, in addition to the re-use of infrastructure with a common FFT module for multiple technologies, a novel cross functional split interaction to cache the repetitive QAM symbols across time at the remote node to reduce the transmission rate requirement of the fronthaul link has been proposed.Dissertation/ThesisDoctoral Dissertation Electrical Engineering 201