" Static Lightpath Routing in IP over WDM Networks "

Dominic A. Schupke

Munich University of Technology (TU München)
Institute of Communication Networks
(Lehrstuhl für Kommunikationsnetze)


Abstract:

The wavelength-division multiplexing (WDM) technology is a key technology to cope with the exponentially growing bandwidth demand in IP backbones. In future networks optical crossconnects are expected to interconnect IP routers, which communicate over lightpaths with each other while omitting intermediate multiplexing layers such as ATM or SDH.

Given the bandwidth demands between IP router sources and destinations a feasible and efficient (static) configuration of the lightpaths is needed. This is referred to as finding an optimal virtual topology seen by the IP layer and a routing and wavelength assignment (RWA) on the WDM layer.

The presentation summarizes the architectural concepts of IP over WDM networks and a network model is developed for the network design. Several approaches for the off-line optimization based on this model are discussed. A solution approach is pursued in more detail which splits the whole problem into subproblems each solved using fast heuristic methods. The approach is applied on a case study for which computational results are given.