Lightpath routing and resource reservation, an integrated solution for IP over DWDM networks

grantor: University of TorontoWith the rapid development in optical devices, more sophisticated and intelligent optical nodes are built to offer more flexibility to Dense Wavelength Division Multiplexing (DWDM) networks. To transport data packets over DWDM networks more efficiently, the design of the overall system requires a de-layering process. This is done by removing intermediate layers (i.e. ATM, SONET), and made the IP layer as the new convergence layer for data packet transmission over DWDM networks. The new protocol stack is realized with the integration of the IP and MPLS control planes with optical network extensions. This thesis focuses on the issues of lightpath routing and resource reservation in DWDM networks. The combination of these two components forms a dynamic lightpath provisioning framework for data packet transmission. In this dissertation, we first study multiple constraint-based routing algorithms. Next, we introduce a traffic aggregation framework at edge optical nodes with extra enhancement to the MPLS framework. Finally, we investigate the effect of our proposed framework by varying multiple parameters. These parameters are number of lambdas per fiber, link state updating policy, network topology design, request rate and offered load distribution.M.A.Sc