Techniques and Benefits of Energy-Aware Load-Distribution in Multi-domain Translucent Wavelength Switched Optical Networks

In this paper, we propose a novel inter-domain connection provisioning mechanism for multi-domain translucent Wavelength Switched Optical Networks. The mechanism can operate in hierarchical and non-hierarchical path computation element-based architectures. It is based on a novel approach to derive the domain abstract topologies jointly with an inter-domain routing algorithm. The overall objective is to perform end-to-end route computations for incoming connections. We do so by taking into account the current load of the physical links and some energy parameters of the optical network devices with the purpose of distributing the load (as much as possible) along the physical links and keeping the energy consumption low. The performance of the whole mechanism is highlighted through extensive and illustrative simulation results that benchmark it against shortest path-based techniques.