Network Optimization for Unified Packet and Circuit Switched Networks

TL;DR

This paper introduces a convex optimization framework for efficiently allocating circuits in unified packet and circuit switched networks, reducing delays and processing costs for pass-through traffic.

Contribution

It presents a novel destination-based multicommodity flow formulation for circuit allocation, applicable with real-time or predicted traffic data, ensuring globally optimal solutions.

Findings

Framework achieves globally optimal circuit allocations.

Applicable to real-time and predicted traffic scenarios.

Reduces delays and processing costs in networks.

Abstract

Internet traffic continues to grow relentlessly, driven largely by increasingly high resolution video content. Although studies have shown that the majority of packets processed by Internet routers are pass-through traffic, they nonetheless have to be queued and routed at every hop in current networks, which unnecessarily adds substantial delays and processing costs. Such pass-through traffic can be better circuit-switched through the underlying optical transport network by means of pre-established circuits, which is possible in a unified packet and circuit switched network. In this paper, we propose a novel convex optimization framework based on a new destination-based multicommodity flow formulation for the allocation of circuits in such unified networks. In particular, we consider two deployment settings, one based on real-time traffic monitoring, and the other relying upon history-based traffic predictions. In both cases, we formulate global network optimization objectives as concave functions that capture the fair sharing of network capacity among competing traffic flows. The convexity of our problem formulations ensures globally optimal solutions.