Coupling Developmental Rules and Evolution to Aid in Planning Network Growth

Abstract

In order to meet the increasing demand for capacity on BT's telecommunications networks, they must be grown. Planning such growth in order to cost effectively meet the projected demand is thus an important concern. This paper describes a tool that was developed to aid in such a task. The system employs a simulation of both the network and the demand that must be satisfied. A set of planning rules are defined which are triggered by conditions in the simulated network and result in the addition or reconfiguration of hardware in an attempt to better accommodate the simulated demand. A genetic algorithm is employed to evolve the parameters of these rules with the overall effect of optimising the resulting networks against constraints of cost and quality of service. In this way, much like the real world, evolution is a modifier of the dynamics of a developmental process. Application of the tool is demonstrated on a specific instance of network growth — the dial-up IP access network that requires rapid expansion.