Lightpath merging mechanism for improving connectivity in MPλS networks

Abstract

Recently, it is expected by a number of engineers that an intelligent optical network will be used for transport network of Internet. A MP(Lambda) S (Multiprotocol Lambda Switching), that is based on both wavelength routing technology and MPLS control plane protocols, is an approach IETF proposed for intelligent optical network. In this article, we propose a network architecture for the MP(lambda) S network, called an Integrated MPLS network. This article also applies a merging mechanism to MP(lambda) S network to improve connectivity, likely MPLS. The Merging mechanism can reduce the number of labels requested and blocking probability for label requests. However, wavelengths, unlikely electrical label, cannot be merged at optical level. To solve this problem, we define a merging module that interleaves two different data streams at electrical level. In addition, we examine the routing problem of the proposed MP(Lambda) S network and propose a graph model for solving this problem, simply. For evaluation of the proposed mechanism, we use simulation mode. The simulation results show that the merging mechanism may offer significant improvement of network performance.