Ahmad Khalil

Dynamic provisioning of low-speed unicast/multicast traffic demands in mesh-based WDM optical networks

This paper addresses the problem of dynamically provisioning both low-speed unicast and multicast connection requests in mesh-based wavelength division multiplexing (WDM) optical networks. Several routing/provisioning schemes to dynamically provision both unicast and multicast connection requests are presented. In addition, a constraint-based grooming strategy is devised to utilize the overall network resources as efficiently as possible. Based on this strategy, several different sequential multicast grooming heuristics are first presented. Then, we devise a hybrid grooming approach and combine it with sequential approaches to achieve a grooming scheme that is biased toward serving multicast traffic demands in comparison with all other sequential grooming approaches. To achieve our objective, we decompose the problem into four subproblems: 1) routing problem; 2) light-tree-based logical-topology-design problem; 3) provisioning problem; and 4) traffic-grooming problem. The simulation results of the proposed schemes are compared with each other and with those of conventional nongrooming approaches. To the best of our knowledge, this is the first detailed paper to address and examine the problem of grooming dynamic multicast traffic demands.

Sequential and hybrid grooming approaches for multicast traffic in WDM networks

The problem of traffic grooming is a crucial constituent in designing WDM networks and has been extensively studied in the literature. Although it is expected that a part of the future traffic of WDM networks will be multicast, most studies of traffic grooming have assumed only unicast traffic. The paper investigates the problem of grooming multicast traffic in WDM networks. More specifically, different sequential single-hop and multi-hop grooming approaches are studied and compared to traditional non-grooming approaches. We also propose a hybrid approach that utilizes the combined resources at the logical and optical layers.

Dynamic Provisioning of Survivable Heterogeneous Multicast and Unicast Traffic in WDM Networks

The problem of protecting purely multicast connections in WDM mesh network has recently started to receive some attention in the literature. In fact, WDM traffic is heterogeneous in nature and only part of the traffic is multicast and the rest is unicast, therefore we expect the presence of both unicast and multicast traffic in future optical networks. This paper studies the problem of dynamic provisioning of survivable heterogeneous unicast and multicast traffic in WDM networks. Specifically, we propose new protection schemes to provision and protect unicast and multicast connection requests against singlelink failures in WDM-mesh networks. The simulation results of the proposed protection schemes are compared with each others and with those found in the literature. The results showed that our proposed scheme TP-OSPT outperforms all other schemes for moderate and large multicast group size. On the other hand, our proposed scheme OCR performs the best for small multicast group size.

Evolution to a Converged Layer 1, 2 in a Global-Scale, Native Ethernet Over WDM-Based Optical Networking Architecture

There is an emerging wide interest to transition from legacy WAN transport technologies to Ethernet-based technology. The current round of carrier Ethernet standards will successfully equip service providers (SPs) with the required tools to provide carrier-grade scalability and to provision and engineer connection-oriented point-to-point (P2P) packet trunks across a native Ethernet infrastructure. Building on these standards, this paper demonstrates how to support and implement full traffic engineering in a global-scale, two-tiered native Ethernet-over-WDM optical networking architecture. To achieve these objectives, several networking innovations are presented and developed including: 1) a GMPLS-based unified control plane that offers a tighter integration between layer-1 (optical transport layer) and layer-2 (Ethernet layer), 2) a fully distributed integrated routing and signaling framework for dynamically provisioning Ethernet switched paths (ESPs) at any bandwidth granularity including both full wavelength and finer granularity (sub-lambda) ESPs in an integrated Ethernet-optical networking environment, and 3) a novel notion of an integrated link-state advertisements strategy that is consistent with a fully integrated routing and signaling protocol

Multicast traffic grooming in WDM networks

We investigate the problem of grooming dynamic multicast traffic in WDM mesh networks. This problem is equivalent to designing a light-tree based logical topology for multicast streams. It consists of four subproblems, namely routing, wavelength assignment, design of a light-tree based logical topology, and traffic-grooming. We develop different routing schemes to efficiently groom low-speed connections on the light-tree based logical topology. Numerical results demonstrate that the proposed approaches use the network resources more efficiently compared to the nongrooming approach and the approach of serving the multicast requests as separate unicast requests. Moreover, amongst the proposed techniques, the logical-first multihop grooming scheme MC-MHl outperforms all other schemes in terms of blocking probability and performance gain.

A Novel Ring-Based WDM-PON Access Architecture for the Efficient Utilization of Network Resources

This work proposes a simple and cost effective local access WDM-PON architecture that combines the salient features of both traditional static WDM-PON (i.e., dedicated connectivity to all subscribers with bit rate and protocol transparencies, guaranteed QoS, and increased security) and dynamic WDM-PON (i.e., efficiently utilizing network resources via dynamic wavelength allocation/sharing among end-users). Specifically, this paper proposes and devises a novel ring-based local access WDM-PON architecture that efficiently supports dynamic allocation of wavelengths/timeslots and sharing traffic as well as a truly shared LAN capability among PON end-users.

Value-added services in next-generation SONET/SDH networks

Advances in next-generation SONET/SDH have introduced novel features for generic protocol framing/encapsulation, virtual concatenation, inverse multiplexing, dynamic circuit adjustment, and so on. In turn, these provisions have enabled much improved multi-tiered service provisioning and are viewed very favorably by carriers, particularly incumbents. This article looks at this evolved framework with a particular focus on value-added services creation. Results from a sample performance evaluation study also are presented to quantify some of the achievable gains.

On multicast traffic grooming in WDM networks

We investigate the problem of grooming dynamic multicast traffic in WDM mesh networks. This problem is equivalent to designing a light-tree based logical topology for multicast streams. To the best of our knowledge, this problem has not been considered before in the literature. The problem consists of four parts: (1) multicast routing sub-problem; (2) multicast wavelength assignment sub-problem; (3) design of a light-tree based logical topology sub-problem; (4) traffic-grooming sub-problem.

Optimal and Efficient Design of Ring Instances in Metro Ethernet Networks

Ethernet Ring Protection (ERP) switching has emerged to provide sub-50 ms of restoration times, allowing Ethernet technologies to expand beyond enterprises to next generation metro and backbone networks, providing much needed services to interconnect for instance dispersed and high-bandwidth data centers. This paper considers the problem of efficiently designing and planning an Ethernet-based metro network with ERP protection method. While previous recent work has addressed such design problem, none has considered the capabilities of exploiting multiple ERP instances, leaving behind some advantages that network providers could tap into to provide their customers with desirable quality of service support. Resource planning in ERP-based Ethernet network is, however, a complex problem due to the challenges associated with the logical link block selection as well as ring hierarchy selection. ERP instances add, however, another dimension of combinatorial complexity, making the design problem completely intractable. To address this issue, we resort to large scale optimization tools and present a novel primal-dual decomposition of the original problem using column generation. We show that our method is very scalable and obtain several design insights on various representative network instances.

A novel IP-over-optical network interconnection model for the next-generation optical Internet

The paper proposes a novel IP-over-optical network interconnection model that takes the best features from both the overlay and peer models while avoiding their limitations. Specifically, the proposed model utilizes an optical layer-based unified control plane that manages both routers and optical switches (analogous to the peer model), while still retaining complete separation between the optical and IP layers of the overlay model. This is achieved by shifting the control plane functionalities previously associated with the IP layer to the IP/MPLS-aware, non-traffic bearing OXC controller modules located within the optical domain. In this architecture, better decisions can be made for provisioning and managing network resources, leading to their more efficient use. Based on the proposed model, an integrated dynamic routing algorithm, that takes into account the combined topology and resource usage information at both the IP and optical layers, is developed.