3rd International ICST Conference on Broadband Communications, Networks, and Systems

Research Article

On Traffic Grooming Choices for IP over WDM networks

  • @INPROCEEDINGS{10.1109/BROADNETS.2006.4374410,
        author={Srivatsan Balasubramanian and Arun K.  Somani},
        title={On Traffic Grooming Choices for IP over WDM networks},
        proceedings={3rd International ICST Conference on Broadband Communications, Networks, and Systems},
        publisher={IEEE},
        proceedings_a={BROADNETS},
        year={2006},
        month={10},
        keywords={},
        doi={10.1109/BROADNETS.2006.4374410}
    }
    
  • Srivatsan Balasubramanian
    Arun K. Somani
    Year: 2006
    On Traffic Grooming Choices for IP over WDM networks
    BROADNETS
    IEEE
    DOI: 10.1109/BROADNETS.2006.4374410
Srivatsan Balasubramanian1,*, Arun K. Somani1,*
  • 1: Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering, Iowa State University, Ames, IA, 50011
*Contact email: vatsan@iastate.edu, arun@iastate.edu

Abstract

Traffic grooming continues to be a rich area of research in the context of WDM optical networks. We provide an overview of the optical and electronic grooming techniques available with focus on IP as the client layer. We discuss the various architectural alternatives available: peer, overlay and augmented models. We first provide a survey on the research work in the area of traffic grooming in optical circuit switched networks. We then identify problems with electronic grooming in terms of high speed router design and bring out the merits of optical grooming. Next, we describe the shared wavelength optical network technology called light-trails and compare its performance with electronic grooming networks for both the peer and overlay models. Based on our simulations on random graphs of various diameters, we identify the threshold router speeds at which light-trails can compete with the electronic grooming solution for a given network scenario. We conclude that since the present router capacities are below the threshold speed or such routers are likely to remain expensive for some time, light-trails is an appealing candidate solution.