Energy-efficient design strategies for backbone optical networks

The exponential growth in high-bandwidth applications and devices used in backbone networks has been accompanied by a corresponding increase in power consumption, and there is a growing recognition of the need to be more energy efficient [1].
The proposed research project will investigate a number of techniques for energy-efficient optical network design. These include: Applying traffic grooming techniques for data aggregations that allow the full bandwidth of each WDM channel on an optical fiber to be utilized efficiently. Reconfiguring the logical topology of a WDM network, so that it can respond adaptively to changing traffic patterns. Distributing the total traffic load as uniformly as possible over the network nodes, so that peak “energy-density” at high traffic nodes can be reduced. Exploiting knowledge of expected traffic demand holding times to schedule demands in a way that minimizes the number of active route ports and/or line cards. Successful completion of the project will lead to new and innovative techniques to address the critical energy consumption issue in today’s high-speed networks.

The selected student will have an opportunity to engage with other students as well as with the supervisor and participate fully in the optical network research group at University of Windsor. Some of the tasks the student may be involved with are background reading, an opportunity to contribute to the development of new algorithms and techniques for energy aware optical network design and resource allocation strategies, and carrying out simulations to study the performance of different networks under for a wide range of inputs and network conditions.

Faculty Supervisor:

Dr. Arunita Jaekel

Student:

Akash Pahariya

Partner:

Discipline:

Engineering - computer / electrical

Sector:

Information and communications technologies

University:

University of Windsor

Program: