Algorithms for virtual topology reconfiguration under multi-hour traffic using Lagrangian relaxation and Tabu Search approaches

Periodic reconfiguration of the virtual topology in transparent optical networks has been recently investigated as a mechanism to more efficiently adapt the network to predictable periodic traffic variations along the day or week. The scheduling of periodic reconfigurations should consider the trade-off between a lower network cost obtained through better resource allocation, and the undesired traffic disruptions that these reconfigurations may cause. This paper presents and compares two algorithms for planning virtual topology reconfiguration suitable for exploring this trade-off. The first is based on a Lagrangian relaxation of the planning problem, and the second is based on a Tabu Search meta-heuristic. The merits of both algorithms are compared

A tabu search algorithm for dynamic routing in ATM cell-switching networks

This paper deals with the dynamic routing problem in ATM cell-switching networks. We present a mathematical programming model based on cell loss and a Tabu Search algorithm with short-term memory that is reinforced with a long-term memory procedure. The estimation of the quality of the solutions is fast, due to the specific encoding of the feasible solutions. The Tabu Search algorithm reaches good quality solutions, outperforming other approaches such as Genetic Algorithms and the Minimum Switching Path heuristic, regarding both cell loss and the CPU time consumption. The best results were found for the more complex networks with a high number of switches and links

Optimizing capacity assignment in multiservice MPLS net-works

Abstract: The general Multiprotocol Label Switch (MPLS) topology optimisation problem is complex and concerns the optimum selection of links, the assignment of capacities to these links and the routing requirements on these links. Ideally, all these are jointly optimised, leading to a minimum cost network which continually meets given objectives on network delay and throughput. In practice, these problems are often dealt with separately and a solution iterated. In this paper, we propose an algorithm that computes the shortest routes, assigns optimal flows to these routes and simultaneously determines optimal link capacities. We take into account the dynamic adaptation of optimal link capacities by considering the same Quality of Service (QoS) measure used in the flow assignment problem in combination with a blocking model for describing call admission controls (CAC) in multiservice broadband telecommunication networks. The main goal is to achieve statistical multiplexing advantages with multiple traffic and QoS classes of connections that share a common trunk present. We offer a mathematical programming model of the problem and proficient solutions which are founded on a Lagrangean relaxation of the problem. Experimental findings on 2-class and 6-class models are reported

Topological Design of Multiple Virtual Private Networks UTILIZING SINK-TREE PATHS

With the deployment of MultiProtocol Label Switching (MPLS) over a core backbone networks, it is possible for a service provider to built Virtual Private Networks (VPNs) supporting various classes of services with QoS guarantees. Efficiently mapping the logical layout of multiple VPNs over a service provider network is a challenging traffic engineering problem. The use of sink-tree (multipoint-to-point) routing paths in a MPLS network makes the VPN design problem different from traditional design approaches where a full-mesh of point-to-point paths is often the choice. The clear benefits of using sink-tree paths are the reduction in the number of label switch paths and bandwidth savings due to larger granularities of bandwidth aggregation within the network. In this thesis, the design of multiple VPNs over a MPLS-like infrastructure network, using sink-tree routing, is formulated as a mixed integer programming problem to simultaneously find a set of VPN logical topologies and their dimensions to carry multi-service, multi-hour traffic from various customers. Such a problem formulation yields a NP-hard complexity. A heuristic path selection algorithm is proposed here to scale the VPN design problem by choosing a small-but-good candidate set of feasible sink-tree paths over which the optimal routes and capacity assignments are determined. The proposed heuristic has clearly shown to speed up the optimization process and the solution can be obtained within a reasonable time for a realistic-size network. Nevertheless, when a large number of VPNs are being layout simultaneously, a standard optimization approach has a limited scalability. Here, the heuristics termed the Minimum-Capacity Sink-Tree Assignment (MCSTA) algorithm proposed to approximate the optimal bandwidth and sink-tree route assignment for multiple VPNs within a polynomial computational time. Numerical results demonstrate the MCSTA algorithm yields a good solution within a small error and sometimes yields the exact solution. Lastly, the proposed VPN design models and solution algorithms are extended for multipoint traffic demand including multipoint-to-point and broadcasting connections

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

Offset time-emulated architecture for optical burst switching-modelling and performance evaluation

L'evolució de les xarxes publiques de transport de dades destaca per el continu augment de la demanda de tràfic a la que estan sotmeses. La causa és la imparable popularització d'Internet i del seu ús per a tot tipus d'aplicacions. Les xarxes de commutació de ràfegues òptiques (OBS: Optical Bursts Switching) són una solució extraordinàriament prometedora per la pròxima generació de xarxes, tant per la flexibilitat que ofereixen com per el seu alt rendiment fruit de l'explotació de la multiplexació estadística en el domini òptic.Aquesta tesi presenta l'anàlisi, modelització i avaluació de les xarxes de commutació de ràfegues òptiques basades en l'emulació del temps de compensació (emulated offset time: E-OBS). El concepte d'E-OBS defineix una arquitectura de xarxa OBS per al transportar i commutar ràfegues òptiques en una xarxa troncal en la que, al contrari de l'arquitectura convencional (C-OBS) en la que el temps de compensació s'introdueix des dels nodes d'accés, el temps de compensació s'introdueix en cadascun dels nodes de la xarxa per mitjà d'un retardador de fibra addicional. L'arquitectura E-OBS permet superar algunes de les desavantatges inherents a arquitectures C-OBS, però la seva gran virtut és la compatibilitat amb les xarxes de commutació de circuits òptics (OCS: Optical Circuit Switching) actuals i les futures xarxes de commutació de paquets òptics (OPS: Optical Packet Switching), de manera que les xarxes OBS basades en una arquitectura E-OBS) poden facilitat enormement la transició de unes a les altres.A ala vista dels principals requeriments de disseny de les xarxes OBS, que són la resolució de contencions en el domini òptic, la provisió de qualitat de servei (QoS) i l'òptim encaminament de les ràfegues per tal de minimitzar la congestió de la xarxa, . en aquesta tesi es proposa un disseny de l'arquitectura E-OBS basada en (i) un mètode viable per a la provisió del temps de compensació, (ii) una qualitat alta global de servei, i (iii) un mecanisme d'encaminament que minimitzi congestió de xarxa.- La primera part d'aquesta tesi proporciona la informació documental necessària per al disseny d'E-OBS.- La segona part se centra en l'estudi de la funcionalitat i viabilitat de l'arquitectura E-OBS. S'introdueixen els principis d'operació d'E-OBS i s'identifiquen els principals esculls que presenten les arquitectures C-OBS i que deixen de ser-ho en una arquitectura E-OBS. Alguns d'aquests esculls són la dificultat d'utilitzar un algorisme d'encaminament amb rutes alternatives, la complexitat dels algoritmes de reserva de recursos i la seva falta d'equitat, la complexitat en la provisió de la QoS, etc. En aquesta segona part es constata que l'arquitectura E-OBS redueix la complexitat dels de reserva de recursos i es verifica la viabilitat d'operació i de funcionament de la provisió del tremps de compensació en aquesta arquitectura a partir de figures de comportament obtingudes amb retardadors de fibra comercialment disponibles.- La tercera part encara el problema de la provisió de la QoS. Primer s'hi revisen els conceptes bàsics de QoS així com els mecanismes de tractament de la QoS per a xarxes OBS fent-ne una comparació qualitativa i de rendiment de tots ells. Com a resultat s'obté que el mecanisme que presenta un millor comportament és el d'avortament de la transmissió de les ràfegues de més baixa prioritat quan aquestes col·lisionen amb una de prioritat més alta (es l'anomenat Burst Preemption mechanism), el qual en alguns casos presenta un problema de senyalització innecessària. Aquesta tercera part es conclou amb la proposta d'un mecanisme de finestra a afegir al esquema de Burst Preemption que només funciona sobre una arquitectura E-OBS i que soluciona aquest problema.- En la quarta part s'afronta el problema de l'encaminament en xarxes OBS. S'estudia el comportament dels algoritmes d'encaminament adaptatius, els aïllats amb rutes alternatives i els multicamí distribuïts, sobre xarxes E-OBS. A la vista dels resultats no massa satisfactoris que s'obtenen, es planteja una solució alternativa que es basa en model d'optimització no lineal. Es formulen i resolen dos models d'optimització per als algoritmes encaminament de font multicamí que redueixen notablement la congestió en les xarxes OBS.Finalment, aquesta tesi conclou que l'arquitectura E-OBS és factible, que és més eficient que la C-OBS, que proveeix eficaçment QoS, i que és capaç d'operar amb diverses estratègies d'encaminament i de reduir eficaçment la congestió de xarxa.The fact that the Internet is a packet-based connection-less network is the main driver to develop a data-centric transport network. In this context, the optical burst switching (OBS) technology is considered as a promising solution for reducing the gap between transmission and switching speeds in future networks.This thesis presents the analysis, modelling, and evaluation of the OBS network with Emulated offset-time provisioning (E-OBS). E-OBS defines an OBS network architecture to transport and switch optical data bursts in a core network. On the contrary to a conventional offset-time provisioning OBS (C-OBS) architecture, where a transmission offset time is introduced in the edge node, in an E-OBS network the offset time is provided in the core node by means of an additional fibre delay element. The architecture is motivated by several drawbacks inherent to C-OBS architectures. It should be pointed out that the E-OBS has not been studied intensively in the literature and this concept has been considered rather occasionally.Due to the limitations in optical processing and queuing, OBS networks need a special treatment so that they could solve problems typical of data-centric networks. Contention resolution in optical domain together with quality of service (QoS) provisioning for quality demanding services are, among other things, the main designing issues when developing OBS networks. Another important aspect is routing problem, which concerns effective balancing of traffic load so that to reduce burst congestion at overloaded links. Accounting for these requirements, the design objectives for the E-OBS architecture are (i) feasibility of offset-time provisioning, (ii) an overall high quality of service, and (iii) reduction of network congestion. These objectives are achieved by combining selected concepts and strategies, together with appropriate system design as well as network traffic engineering.The contributions in this thesis can be summarized as follows.- At the beginning, we introduce the principles of E-OBS operation and we demonstrate that C-OBS possesses many drawbacks that can be easily avoided in E-OBS. Some of the discussed issues are the problem of unfairness in resources reservation, difficulty with alternative routing, complexity of resources reservation algorithms, efficiency of burst scheduling, and complexity in QoS provisioning. The feasibility of E-OBS operation is investigated as well; in this context, the impact of congestion in control plane on OBS operation is studied. As a result, we confirm the feasibility of E-OBS operation with commercially available fibre delay elements.- Then, we provide both qualitative and quantitative comparison of the selected, most addressed in the literature, QoS mechanisms. As an outcome a burst preemption mechanism, which is characterized by the highest overall performance, is qualified for operating in E-OBS. Since the preemptive mechanism may produce the overbooking of resources in an OBS network we address this issue as well. We propose the preemption window mechanism to solve the problem. An analytical model of the mechanism legitimates correctness of our solution.- Finally, we concern with a routing problem - our routing objective is to help the contention resolution algorithms in the reduction of burst losses. We propose and evaluate two isolated alternative routing algorithms designed for labelled E-OBS networks. Then we study multi-path source routing and we use network optimization theory to improve it. The presented formulae for partial derivatives, to be used in a non-linear optimization problem, are straightforward and very fast to compute. It makes the proposed non-linear optimization method a viable alternative for linear programming formulations based on piecewise linear approximations.Concluding, E-OBS is shown to be a feasible OBS network architecture of profitable functionality, to support efficiently the QoS provisioning, and to be able to operate with different routing strategies and effectively reduce the network congestion

Proceedings of the Fifth International Mobile Satellite Conference 1997

Satellite-based mobile communications systems provide voice and data communications to users over a vast geographic area. The users may communicate via mobile or hand-held terminals, which may also provide access to terrestrial communications services. While previous International Mobile Satellite Conferences have concentrated on technical advances and the increasing worldwide commercial activities, this conference focuses on the next generation of mobile satellite services. The approximately 80 papers included here cover sessions in the following areas: networking and protocols; code division multiple access technologies; demand, economics and technology issues; current and planned systems; propagation; terminal technology; modulation and coding advances; spacecraft technology; advanced systems; and applications and experiments

SDN-based traffic engineering in data centers, Interconnects, and Carrier Networks

Server virtualization and cloud computing have escalated the bandwidth and performance demands on the DCN (data center network). The main challenges in DCN are maximizing network utilization and ensuring fault tolerance to address multiple node-and-link failures. A multitenant and highly dynamic virtualized environment consists of a large number of endstations, leading to a very large number of flows that challenge the scalability of a solution to network throughput maximization. The challenges are scalability, in terms of address learning, forwarding decision convergence, and forwarding state size, as well as flexibility for offloading with VM migration. Geographically distributed data centers are inter-connected through service providers’ carrier network. Service providers offer wide-area network (WAN) connection such as private lines and MPLS circuits between edges of data centers. DC sides of network operators try to maximize the utilization of such defined overlay WAN connection i.e. data center interconnection (DCI), which applies to edges of DC networks. Service provider sides of network operators try to optimize the core of carrier network. Along with the increasing adoption of ROADM, OTN, and packet switching technologies, traditional two-layer IP/MPLS-over-WDM network has evolved into three-layer IP/MPLS-over-OTN-over-DWDM network and once defined overlay topology is now transitioning to dynamic topologies based on on-demand traffic demands. Network operations are thus divided into three physical sub-networks: DCN, overlay DCI, and multi-layer carrier network. Server virtualization, cloud computing and evolving multilayer carrier network challenge traffic engineering to maximize utilization on all physical subnetworks. The emerging software-defined networking (SDN) architecture moves path computation towards a centralized controller, which has global visibility. Carriers indicate a strong preference for SDN to be interoperable between multiple vendors in heterogeneous transport networks. SDN is a natural way to create a unified control plane across multiple administrative divisions. This thesis contributes SDN-based traffic engineering techniques for maximizing network utilization of DCN, DCI, and carrier network. The first part of the thesis focuses on DCN traffic engineering. Traditional forwarding mechanisms using a single path are not able to take advantages of available multiple physical paths. The state-of-the-art MPTCP (Multipath Transmission Control Protocol) solution uses multiple randomly selected paths, but cannot give total aggregated capacity. Moreover, it works as a TCP process, and so does not support other protocols like UDP. To address these issues, this thesis presents a solution using adaptive multipath routing in a Layer-2 network with static (capacity and latency) metrics, which adapts link and path failures. This solution provides innetwork aggregated path capacity to individual flows, as well as scalability and multitenancy, by separating end-station services from the provider’s network. The results demonstrate an improvement of 14% in the worst bisection bandwidth utilization, compared to the MPTCP with 5 sub-flows. The second part of the thesis focuses on DCI traffic engineering. The existing approaches to reservation services provide limited reservation capabilities, e.g. limited connections over links returned by the traceroute over traditional IP-based networks. Moreover, most existing approaches do not address fault tolerance in the event of node or link failures. To address these issues, this thesis presents ECMP-like multipath routing algorithm and forwarding assignment scheme that increase reservation acceptance rate compared to state-of-art reservation frameworks in the WAN-links between data centers, and such reservations can be configured with a limited number of static forwarding rules on switches. Our prototype provides the RESTful web service interface for link-fail event management and re-routes paths for all the affected reservations. In the final part of the thesis, we focused on multi-layer carrier network traffic engineering. New dynamic traffic trends in upper layers (e.g. IP routing) require dynamic configuration of the optical transport to re-direct the traffic, and this in turn requires an integration of multiple administrative control layers. When multiple bandwidth path requests come from different nodes in different layers, a distributed sequential computation cannot optimize the entire network. Most prior research has focused on the two-layer problem, and recent three-layer research studies are limited to the capacity dimensioning problem. In this thesis, we present an optimization model with MILP formulation for dynamic traffic in a three-layer network, especially taking into account the unique technological constraints of the distinct OTN layer. Our experimental results show how unit cost values of different layers affect network cost and parameters in the presence of multiple sets of traffic loads. We also demonstrate the effectiveness of our proposed heuristic approach

Application of genetic algorithm to wireless communications

Wireless communication is one of the most active areas of technology development of our time. Like all engineering endeavours, the subject of the wireless communication also brings with it a whole host of complex design issues, concerning network design, signal detection, interference cancellation, and resource allocation, to name a few. Many of these problems have little knowledge of the solution space or have very large search space, which are known as non-deterministic polynomial (NP) -hard or - complete and therefore intractable to solution using analytical approaches. Consequently, varied heuristic methods attempts have been made to solve them ranging from simple deterministic algorithms to complicated random-search methods. Genetic alcyorithm (GA) is an adaptive heuristic search algorithm premised on the evolutionary ideas of evolution and natural selection, which has been successfully applied to a variety of complicated problems arising from physics, engineering, biology, economy or sociology. Due to its outstanding search strength and high designable components, GA has attracted great interests even in the wireless domain. This dissertation is devoted to the application of GA to solve various difficult problems spotlighted from the wireless systems. These problems have been mathematically formulated in the constrained optimisation context, and the main work has been focused on developing the problem-specific GA approaches, which incorporate many modifications to the traditional GA in order to obtain enhanced performance. Comparative results lead to the conclusion that the proposed GA approaches are generally able to obtain the optimal or near-optimal solutions to the considered optimisation problems provided that the appropriate representation, suitable fitness function, and problem-specific operators are utilised. As a whole, the present work is largely original and should be of great interest to the design of practical GA approaches to solve realistic problems in the wireless communications systems.EThOS - Electronic Theses Online ServiceBritish Council (ORS) : Newcastle UniversityGBUnited Kingdo