Virtual topology reconfiguration on optical WDM networks considering traffic grooming

Abstract

This paper investigates the virtual topology reconfiguration (VTR) problem of optical WDM networks by taking the traffic grooming factor into consideration. Firstly, by applying a common “divide and conquer” approach, the problem is categorized and handled as two independent sub-problems, triggering policy and the proper algorithm. Secondly, the VTR problem considering traffic grooming is formulated with new variables and constraints by a mixed-integer linear program (MILP). In order to handle the tradeoff between the advantages and disadvantages of VTR, both network resource utilization and network disruption are examined and quantified in terms of measurable parameters. A new multi-objective VTR algorithm called integrated reconfiguration (IR) algorithm is proposed to provide better overall VTR performance. Different from previous studies this newly proposed VTR algorithm combines three main factors (traffic load, traffic grooming ratio and route length of lightpaths) into one single objective and considers them all when reconfiguring. The results of simulations indicate that proposed VTR policy, periodic VTR triggering policy with IR algorithm, achieves performance improvements for overall VTR performance.