Discontinuous Waveband Switching in WDM Optical Networks

Routing techniques used in wavelength routed optical networks (WRN) do not give an efficient solution with Waveband routed optical networks (WBN) as the objective of routing in WRN is to reduce the blocking probability and that in WBN is to reduce the number of switching ports. Routing in WBN can be divided two parts, finding the route and grouping the wavelength assigned into that route with some existing wavelengths/wavebands. In this paper, we propose a heuristic for waveband routing, which uses a new grouping strategy called discontinuous waveband grouping to group the wavelengths into a waveband. The main objective of our algorithm is to decrease the total number of ports required and reduce the blocking probability of the network. The performance of the heuristic is analyzed using simulation on a WBN with non-uniform wavebands

Discontinuous Waveband Switching in WDM Optical Networks

Routing techniques used in wavelength routed optical networks (WRN) do not give an efficient solution with Waveband routed optical networks (WBN) as the objective of routing in WRN is to reduce the blocking probability and that in WBN is to reduce the number of switching ports. Routing in WBN can be divided two parts, finding the route and grouping the wavelength assigned into that route with some existing wavelengths/wavebands. In this paper, we propose a heuristic for waveband routing, which uses a new grouping strategy called discontinuous waveband grouping to group the wavelengths into a waveband. The main objective of our algorithm is to decrease the total number of ports required and reduce the blocking probability of the network. The performance of the heuristic is analyzed using simulation on a WBN with non-uniform wavebands

Framework for waveband switching in multigranular optical networks: part I-multigranular cross-connect architectures

Optical networks using wavelength-division multiplexing (WDM) are the foremost solution to the ever-increasing traffic in the Internet backbone. Rapid advances in WDM technology will enable each fiber to carry hundreds or even a thousand wavelengths (using dense-WDM, or DWDM, and ultra-DWDM) of traffic. This, coupled with worldwide fiber deployment, will bring about a tremendous increase in the size of the optical cross-connects, i.e., the number of ports of the wavelength switching elements. Waveband switching (WBS), wherein wavelengths are grouped into bands and switched as a single entity, can reduce the cost and control complexity of switching nodes by minimizing the port count. This paper presents a detailed study on recent advances and open research issues in WBS networks. In this study, we investigate in detail the architecture for various WBS cross-connects and compare them in terms of the number of ports and complexity and also in terms of how flexible they are in adjusting to dynamic traffic. We outline various techniques for grouping wavelengths into bands for the purpose of WBS and show how traditional wavelength routing is different from waveband routing and why techniques developed for wavelength-routed networks (WRNs) cannot be simply applied to WBS networks. We also outline how traffic grooming of subwavelength traffic can be done in WBS networks. In part II of this study [Cao , submitted to J. Opt. Netw.], we study the effect of wavelength conversion on the performance of WBS networks with reconfigurable MG-OXCs. We present an algorithm for waveband grouping in wavelength-convertible networks and evaluate its performance. We also investigate issues related to survivability in WBS networks and show how waveband and wavelength conversion can be used to recover from failures in WBS networks

Benchmarking and viability assessment of optical packet switching for metro networks

Optical packet switching (OPS) has been proposed as a strong candidate for future metro networks. This paper assesses the viability of an OPS-based ring architecture as proposed within the research project DAVID (Data And Voice Integration on DWDM), funded by the European Commission through the Information Society Technologies (IST) framework. Its feasibility is discussed from a physical-layer point of view, and its limitations in size are explored. Through dimensioning studies, we show that the proposed OPS architecture is competitive with respect to alternative metropolitan area network (MAN) approaches, including synchronous digital hierarchy, resilient packet rings (RPR), and star-based Ethernet. Finally, the proposed OPS architectures are discussed from a logical performance point of view, and a high-quality scheduling algorithm to control the packet-switching operations in the rings is explained

Resource Management in Survivable Multi-Granular Optical Networks

The last decade witnessed a wild growth of the Internet traffic, promoted by bandwidth-hungry applications such as Youtube, P2P, and VoIP. This explosive increase is expected to proceed with an annual rate of 34% in the near future, which leads to a huge challenge to the Internet infrastructure. One foremost solution to this problem is advancing the optical networking and switching, by which abundant bandwidth can be provided in an energy-efficient manner. For instance, with Wavelength Division Multiplexing (WDM) technology, each fiber can carry a mass of wavelengths with bandwidth up to 100 Gbits/s or higher. To keep up with the traffic explosion, however, simply scaling the number of fibers and/or wavelengths per fiber results in the scalability issue in WDM networks. One major motivation of this dissertation is to address this issue in WDM networks with the idea of waveband switching (WBS). This work includes the author\u27s study on multiple aspects of waveband switching: how to address dynamic user demand, how to accommodate static user demand, and how to achieve a survivable WBS network. When combined together, the proposed approaches form a framework that enables an efficient WBS-based Internet in the near future or the middle term. As a long-term solution for the Internet backbone, the Spectrum Sliced Elastic Optical Path (SLICE) Networks recently attract significant interests. SLICE aims to provide abundant bandwidth by managing the spectrum resources as orthogonal sub-carriers, a finer granular than wavelengths of WDM networks. Another important component of this dissertation is the author\u27s timely study on this new frontier: particulary, how to efficiency accommodate the user demand in SLICE networks. We refer to the overall study as the resource management in multi-granular optical networks. In WBS networks, the multi-granularity includes the fiber, waveband, and wavelength. While in SLICE networks, the traffic granularity refers to the fiber, and the variety of the demand size (in terms of number of sub-carriers)

Field trial of a 15 Tb/s adaptive and gridless OXC supporting elastic 1000-fold all-optical bandwidth granularity

An adaptive gridless OXC is implemented using a 3D-MEMS optical backplane plus optical modules (sub-systems) that provide elastic spectrum and time switching functionality. The OXC adapts its architecture on demand to fulfill the switching requirements of incoming traffic. The system is implemented in a seven-node network linked by installed fiber and is shown to provide suitable architectures on demand for three scenarios with increasing traffic and switching complexity. In the most complex scenario, signals of mixed bit-rates and modulation formats are successfully switched with flexible per-channel allocation of spectrum, time and space, achieving over 1000-fold bandwidth granularity and 1.5 Tb/s throughput with good end-to-end performance

Applied constant gain amplification in circulating loop experiments

The reconfiguration of channel or wavelength routes in optically transparent mesh networks can lead to deviations in channel power that may impact transmission performance. A new experimental approach, applied constant gain, is used to maintain constant gain in a circulating loop enabling the study of gain error effects on long-haul transmission under reconfigured channel loading. Using this technique we examine a number of channel configurations and system tuning operations for both full-span dispersion-compensated and optimized dispersion-managed systems. For each system design, large power divergence was observed with a maximum of 15 dB at 2240 km, when switching was implemented without additional system tuning. For a bit error rate of 10-3, the maximum number of loop circulations was reduced by up to 33%

Multi-Granular Optical Cross-Connect: Design, Analysis, and Demonstration

A fundamental issue in all-optical switching is to offer efficient and cost-effective transport services for a wide range of bandwidth granularities. This paper presents multi-granular optical cross-connect (MG-OXC) architectures that combine slow (ms regime) and fast (ns regime) switch elements, in order to support optical circuit switching (OCS), optical burst switching (OBS), and even optical packet switching (OPS). The MG-OXC architectures are designed to provide a cost-effective approach, while offering the flexibility and reconfigurability to deal with dynamic requirements of different applications. All proposed MG-OXC designs are analyzed and compared in terms of dimensionality, flexibility/reconfigurability, and scalability. Furthermore, node level simulations are conducted to evaluate the performance of MG-OXCs under different traffic regimes. Finally, the feasibility of the proposed architectures is demonstrated on an application-aware, multi-bit-rate (10 and 40 Gbps), end-to-end OBS testbed