Adaptive survivability algorithm for path protection with various traffic classes in elastic optical networks

Abstract

The recently proposed concept of Elastic Optical Networks (EON) is expected to largely improve optical network resource utilization due to the possibility to divide the optical spectrum into relatively narrow segments called slices. In turn, the increasing position of numerous IT solutions in the modern world as well as the growth of network traffic trigger the need to develop robust and cost-efficient protection approaches, since the failures affecting the network can occur in any time. Therefore, in this paper we focus on the issues related to dynamic routing in EON with additional survivability requirements. The main contribution of this paper is a new adaptive algorithm for dynamic routing in survivable EON. The key novelty of our approach is the possibility to handle various traffic classes in a different way in terms of the required protection level. Our new method was extensively tested using representative network topologies with realistic assumptions concerning the network traffic and operation of the EON. The obtained results clearly indicate that the our algorithm significantly outperforms classical protection methods including Dedicated Path Protection and Shared Backup Path Protection in terms of two performance metrics, namely, bandwidth blocking probability and ratio of traffic lost (not restored) due to network failures.