QoS-aware united control protocol for optical burst switching in software defined optical networks

• US 9,094,126 B2
• Filed: 11/07/2013
• Issued: 07/28/2015
• Est. Priority Date: 11/07/2012
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: NEC Corporation
• Original Assignee: NEC Laboratories America Inc (NEC Corporation)
• Inventors: Patel, Ankitkumar N., Ji, Philip Nan
• Primary Examiner(s): Hamza, Faruk
• Assistant Examiner(s): Lindenbaum, Alan
• Application Number:
  US13/998,535
• Publication Number:
  US 20140178066A1
• Time in Patent Office: 628 Days
• Field of Search: None
• US Class Current: 1/1
• CPC Class Codes: H04B 10/27 Arrangements for networking
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/568 Storing data temporarily at an intermediate stage, e.g. caching
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/63 Routing a service request depending on the request content or context
• CPC Class Codes: H04Q 11/00 Selecting arrangements for multiplex systems multiplex systems H04J

Abstract

The present invention is directed to a QoS-aware unified protocol that is applicable in the control plane of software defined networks, which can bring following benefits and includes optical burst switching protocol mainly requires four key operations; burst assembling, burst routing, burst scheduling, and control packet signaling protocols.

Claims

1. A computer implemented method for Quality of service QoS aware unified control protocol for optical burst switching in software defined networks comprising the steps of:

employing an adaptive burst assembling protocol for providing network state information and application latency requirements;

using a latency aware burst routing for determining burst routing and scheduling while observing a wavelength continuity restraint responsive to said adaptive burst assembling protocol;

utilizing OpenFlow protocol extensions for realizing a QoS aware unified control protocol for optical burst switching OBS;

pre-calculating K-alternate shortest routes between a plurality of source-destination pairs;

determining an occupancy bit-map of each wavelength along the pre-calculated K-alternate shortest paths by performing the logical end operations of the wavelength occupancy states of the same wavelength of all links along the route in each time slot;

finding a set of consecutive available time slots (void islands) with at least a width of (B_bst/Y) in an occupancy bit-map of each wavelength along K-alternate shortest routes, and starting time slots at which void islands are available where B_bst denotes a size of a burst to be transmitted between source and destination edge nodes and where Y denotes channel bandwidth in a time slot; and

selecting a void island based on the width for a given class of traffic for carrying out the QoS aware unified control protocol for performing burst routing and burst scheduling operations using the latency-aware burst routing, estimating a burst size for future arrival of traffic using the burst estimation.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein the QoS aware unified control protocol comprises a controller with operations performed using global network state information, including the network connectivity and wavelength occupancy information, and the latency requirements of applications.

3. The method of claim 1, wherein the QoS aware unified control protocol comprises a controller for sending an acknowledgement with an estimated burst size of a forward equivalent classes FEC in a burst release message to a source edge node.

4. The method of claim 1, wherein the QoS aware unified control protocol comprises a controller for sending the cross-connection entries of an optical circuit for a scheduled duration in the burst configuration message to all nodes along the selected route, upon an acceptance of a burst release message from the controller, an edge node forwarding the burst after the specified offset time all-optically to the other edge node requiring applications of proposed enhancements to OpenFlow protocol, and a development of burst assembling and burst scheduling applications in the controller to offer optical burst switching OBS functionalities over software defined networks SDNs.

5. The method of claim 1, wherein the QoS aware unified control protocol comprises a source OBS edge node that buffers packets with different QoS requirements in different forwarding equivalent classes (FEC), for each FEC C a node maintaining an estimated burst size B_C determined by a controller and when a buffer size is reached to B_C, the edge node generates a burst of size B_C.

6. The method of claim 5, wherein the QoS aware unified control protocol comprises a source node that sends out a burst establishment message to the controller in order to request an edge-to-edge optical connection.

7. The method of claim 6, wherein the QoS aware unified control protocol comprises a controller that finds the burst routing and scheduling using the latency-aware burst routing and scheduling and the controller also estimates a burst size based on the network state information, QoS (latency) requirements of applications, and state of the queue at the edge node using the adaptive burst assembling.

8. The method of claim 7, wherein the QoS aware unified control protocol comprises the controller sending the estimated burst size along with a burst release message to the edge node, and the cross-connection entries with a scheduled time interval to each core node along the selected route.

9. The method of claim 8, wherein the QoS aware unified control protocol comprises where upon reception of the burst release message from the controller, an edge router updates the estimated buffer size parameter B_C for class C traffic, upon reception of the burst configuration message, the received cross-connect entries for the schedules duration of the burst are cached in the cross-connect table of each node along the selected route, and the core nodes are configured at the scheduled time.

10. The method of claim 9, wherein the QoS aware unified control protocol comprises the burst being released at a schedule time from the source edge node, and transported to the destination edge node transparently.

11. A system for implementing for Quality of service QoS aware unified control protocol for optical burst switching in software defined networks comprising:

an adaptive burst assembling protocol for providing network state information and application latency requirements;

a latency aware burst routing for determining burst routing and scheduling while observing a wavelength continuity restraint responsive to said adaptive burst assembling protocol;

an OpenFlow protocol extensions for realizing a QoS aware unified control protocol for optical burst switching OBS; and

a QoS aware unified control protocol for performing burst routing and burst scheduling operations using the latency-aware burst routing, estimating a burst size for future arrival of traffic using the burst estimation, pre-calculating K-alternate shortest routes between a plurality of source-destination pairs;

determining an occupancy bit-map of each wavelength along the pre-calculated K-alternate shortest paths by performing the logical end operations of the wavelength occupancy states of the same wavelength of all links along the route in each time slot;

finding a set of consecutive available time slots (void islands) with at least a width of (B_bst/Y) in an occupancy bit-map of each wavelength along K-alternate shortest routes, and starting time slots at which void islands are available where B_bst denotes a size of a burst to be transmitted between source and destination edge nodes and where Y denotes channel bandwidth in a time slot; and

selecting a void island based on the width for a given class of traffic.

12. The system of claim 11, wherein the QoS aware unified control protocol comprises a controller with operations performed using global network state information, including the network connectivity and wavelength occupancy information, and the latency requirements of applications.

13. The system of claim 11, wherein the QoS aware unified control protocol comprises a controller for sending an acknowledgement with an estimated burst size of a forward equivalent classes FEC in a burst release message to a source edge node.

14. The system of claim 11, wherein the QoS aware unified control protocol comprises a controller for sending the cross-connection entries of an optical circuit for a scheduled duration in the burst configuration message to all nodes along the selected route, upon an acceptance of a burst release message from the controller, an edge node forwarding the burst after the specified offset time all-optically to the other edge node requiring applications of proposed enhancements to OpenFlow protocol, and a development of burst assembling and burst scheduling applications in the controller to offer optical burst switching OBS functionalities over software defined networks SDNs.

15. The system of claim 11, wherein the QoS aware unified control protocol comprises a source OBS edge node that buffers packets with different QoS requirements in different forwarding equivalent classes (FEC), for each FEC C a node maintaining an estimated burst size B_C determined by a controller and when a buffer size is reached to B_C, the edge node generates a burst of size B_C.

16. The system of claim 15, wherein the QoS aware unified control protocol comprises a source node that sends out a burst establishment message to the controller in order to request an edge-to-edge optical connection.

17. The system of claim 16, wherein the QoS aware unified control protocol comprises a controller that finds the burst routing and scheduling using the latency-aware burst routing and scheduling and the controller also estimates a burst size based on the network state information, QoS (latency) requirements of applications, and state of the queue at the edge node using the adaptive burst assembling.

18. The system of claim 17, wherein the QoS aware unified control protocol comprises the controller sending the estimated burst size along with a burst release message to the edge node, and the cross-connection entries with a scheduled time interval to each core node along the selected route.

19. The system of claim 18, wherein the QoS aware unified control protocol comprises where upon reception of the burst release message from the controller, an edge router updates the estimated buffer size parameter B_C for class C traffic, upon reception of the burst configuration message, the received cross-connect entries for the schedules duration of the burst are cached in the cross-connect table of each node along the selected route, and the core nodes are configured at the scheduled time.

20. The system of claim 19, wherein the QoS aware unified control protocol comprises the burst being released at a schedule time from the source edge node, and transported to the destination edge node transparently.