Section: New Results

Algorithms: Bandwidth Allocation in Optical Networks

Participants : Christine Fricker, Jelena Pesic, Philippe Robert, James Roberts.

The development of dynamic optical switching is widely recognized as an essential requirement to meet anticipated growth in Internet traffic. Since September 2009, RAP has investigated the traffic management and performance evaluation issues that are particular to this technology. Our activity on optical networking is carried out in collaboration with Orange Labs with whom we have a research contract. We have also established contacts with Alcatel-Lucent Bell Labs and had fruitful exchanges with Iraj Saniee and his team on their proposed time-domain wavelength interleaved networking architecture (TWIN).

Our work on access networks proposed an original dynamic bandwidth allocation (DBA) algorithm and demonstrated its excellent performance. This DBA algorithm was then adapted to a meshed metropolitan network based on TWIN and implementing flow-aware resource sharing. Extensions using a concept called “multipath” were shown to offer an energy efficient solution for wide area networks.

In 2013, we contributed to the Celtic Plus project called SASER/SAVENET. This project was approved by the EU in 2012 and funding has been obtained for our participation from the French authorities. The project kickoff meeting was held in November 2012. Our contribution relates to the use of TWIN to create an extended metropolitan optical network. Our partners in the corresponding work package task are Orange, Telecom Bretagne and the engineering school ENSSAT. Overall responsibility for the work package (where alternative optical network architectures are also evaluated) is with Alcatel-Lucent Bell Labs.

In 2013, Inria edited the M12 milestone document of Task 6.4 "TWIN implementations and preliminary MAC protocol specifications". A paper on applying the network architecture and MAC/DBA protocols proposed by the team to the domain of data center interconnects has been submitted.

RAP has continued to work on a two-year research contract with Orange Labs on further developing the multipath architecture (20012-2013). The main contribution in 2013 has been to propose the use of tunable receivers in addition to tunable transmitters. This technological evolution is possible with recent developments in coherent transmission and offers greater flexibility and enhanced efficiency. Work is continuing on evaluating this architecture by simulation (using Onmet++) and by analytical modelling.