A Framework for Differentiated Survivable Optical Virtual Private Networks

Abstract

Wavelength division multiplexed (WDM) networks are matured to provide, scalable data centric infrastructure, capable of delivering flexible, value added, high speed and high bandwidth services directly from the optical domain. Optical virtual private networks (OVPNs) make use of the concept of highly reconfigurable nature of lightpaths offered by WDM, to create secure tunnels of high bandwidth across the intelligent WDM optical transport network. An OVPN is a private connection between two or more edge devices (access nodes), that allows a group of clients to fully exploit the flexibility of the switched intelligent optical network. However, OVPNs will not be a viable alternative unless they can guarantee a predictable bandwidth, availability, response time, and fault-tolerance to users. In this paper, we study the problem of dynamically establishing lightpaths for OVPNs over intelligent optical transport networks to provide varying classes of service based on the type of primary and backup lightpaths and the number of backup lightpaths, when each OVPN is specified by the desired logical connectivity and Class of Service. The type of primary and backup lightpaths determines the QoS parameters such as response time and bandwidth. Whereas, the number of backup lightpaths determines the level of fault-tolerance and availability of OVPN. Based on the service classes, any OVPN in the network falls into one of the six classes viz. single dedicated primary and single dedicated backup (SDPSDB), single dedicated primary and multiple dedicated backups (SDPMDB), single dedicated primary and single shared backup (SDPSSB), single shared primary and single shared backup (SSPSSB), single shared primary and multiple shared backups (SSPMSB), and best-effort (BE). In BE, we consider two variations—(1) OVPN as dedicated logical ring topology (DLRT) and (2) OVPN as shared logical ring topology (SLRT). We conduct extensive simulation experiments to compare and evaluate the effectiveness of different classes of OVPNs for varying network configurations–varying number of fibers, wavelengths on physical links, and number of nodes in OVPN.