WAVELENGTH REGENERATION IN A NETWORK

• US 20190319857A1
• Filed: 06/24/2019
• Published: 10/17/2019
• Est. Priority Date: 11/15/2010
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Level 3 Communications LLC (Lumen Technologies, Inc.)
• Original Assignee: Level 3 Communications LLC (Lumen Technologies, Inc.)
• Inventors: Peterson, Benjamin K., Clark, Laurel
• Granted Patent: US 11,637,757 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/063 Operations research, analysis or management
• CPC Class Codes: H04J 14/021 Reconfigurable arrangements, e.g. reconfigurable optical add/drop multiplexers [ROADM] or tunable optical add/drop multiplexers [TOADM]
• CPC Class Codes: H04J 14/0254 Optical medium access
• CPC Class Codes: H04J 14/0257 Wavelength assignment algorithms
• CPC Class Codes: H04J 14/0263 Multiplex section layer wavelength assignment algorithms
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 41/22 comprising specially adapted graphical user interfaces [GUI]

Abstract

An optical network including a plurality of gateway nodes interconnected with a plurality of intermediate nodes with segments of fiber. The network includes a plurality of devices, such as reconfigurable optical add drop multiplexers, optimally placed at various nodes throughout the network. The device placement is optimized with an integer linear programming analysis considering span definition such that any given span involves some number of segments not exceeding a number of segments that would require wavelength regeneration, cost of placement of a device at a given node, cost of wavelength regeneration, and various parameters and constraints.

Claims

1-4. -4. (canceled)

5. A system for optimizing a telecommunications network, the system comprising:

at least one processor; and

memory, operatively connected to the at least one processor and containing instructions that, when executed by the at least one processor, cause the system to;

access information describing fiber segments in the telecommunications network;

identify, based on the information, a plurality of spans of the fiber segments in the telecommunications network that can be traversed by a wave without intermediate regeneration;

generate an optimal placement for at least one regeneration device in the telecommunications network based on at least;

a constraint requiring that, for at least a particular span of the identified spans, the particular span does not exceed a maximum number of intermediate nodes that are interconnected without intermediate regeneration; and

cause display of the optimal placement for the at least one regeneration device in a graphical user interface.

6. The system of claim 5, wherein the telecommunication network comprises a set of nodes, and wherein each span of the identified plurality of spans comprises two or more nodes of the set of nodes that are interconnected by at least one fiber segment.

7. The system of claim 6, wherein generating the optimal placement for the at least one regeneration device further comprises evaluating of a cost associated with placement of the at least one regeneration device at a node of the set of nodes in the telecommunications network.

8. The system of claim 5, wherein the at least one regeneration device is a reconfigurable optical add-drop multiplexer (ROADM) device.

9. The system of claim 8, wherein the optimal placement of the ROADM device is displayed by the graphical user interface to be a modified placement of the ROADM device.

10. The system of claim 8, wherein the optimal placement of the ROADM device is displayed by the graphical user interface to be a new ROADM device in addition to at least one other ROADM device.

11. The system of claim 5, wherein the graphical user interface further comprises at least one span of the plurality of spans, and wherein the at least one span is associated with the display of the optimal placement for the at least one regeneration device.

12. A method for determining an optimal placement for a regeneration device in a telecommunications network, comprising:

identifying a set of possible spans of the telecommunications network, wherein each possible span of the set of possible spans;

can be traversed by a wave without intermediate regeneration; and

comprises a plurality of nodes that are interconnected by one or more fiber segments of the telecommunications network;

determining, based on the set of possible spans, an optimal placement for a regeneration device in the telecommunications network according to a constraint requiring that, for at least a particular span of the set of possible spans, the particular span does not exceed a maximum number of intermediate nodes that are interconnected without intermediate regeneration; and

generating a user interface comprising a display of the optimal placement for the regeneration device in a graphical user interface.

13. The method of claim 12, further comprising generating, based on the set of possible spans, a set of optimal spans for the telecommunications network, each optimal span comprising at least:

a start node;

an end node; and

a number of intermediate nodes.

14. The method of claim 12, wherein determining the optimal placement for the regeneration device further comprises evaluating of a cost associated with placement of the regeneration device at a node of the telecommunications network.

15. The method of claim 12, wherein the user interface further comprises at least one span of the telecommunications network, and wherein the at least one span is associated with the display of the optimal placement for the regeneration device.

16. The method of claim 12, wherein the display of the optimal placement for the regeneration device comprises an indication that the optimal placement is a modified placement of the regeneration device.

17. The method of claim 12, wherein the display of the optimal placement for the regeneration device comprises an indication that the regeneration device is a new regeneration device for the telecommunications network at the determined optimal placement.

18. A method for optimizing a telecommunications network, the method comprising:

accessing information describing fiber segments in the telecommunications network;

determining, based on the information, a plurality of spans of the fiber segments in the telecommunications network that can be traversed by a wave without intermediate regeneration;

generating an optimal placement for at least one regeneration device in the telecommunications network based on at least;

a constraint requiring that, for at least a particular span of the identified spans, the particular span does not have more than a maximum number of intermediate nodes that are interconnected without intermediate regeneration; and

causing display of the optimal placement for the at least one regeneration device in a graphical user interface.

19. The method of claim 18, wherein the telecommunication network comprises a set of nodes, and wherein each span of the identified plurality of spans comprises two or more nodes of the set of nodes that are interconnected by at least one fiber segment.

20. The method of claim 19, wherein generating the optimal placement for the at least one regeneration device further comprises evaluating of a cost associated with placement of the at least one regeneration device at a node of the set of nodes in the telecommunications network.

21. The method of claim 18, wherein the generating the optimal placement is further comprises determining the maximum number of intermediate nodes and a maximum bandwidth for the particular span.

22. The method of claim 18, wherein generating the optimal placement is further based on another constraint that each span in the identified spans has a regeneration device placed at each endpoint node of such span.

23. The method of claim 18, wherein generating the optimal placement further comprises applying at least one first linear programming model to the identified spans and the constraint.

24. The method of claim 23, wherein generating the optimal placement further comprises applying at least one second linear programming model to determine a set of specific wavelengths for each identified span.