A New Approach for Automatic Grooming SONET Circuits to Optical Express Links
01 January 2003
We consider meshed optical transport networks having multiple levels of hierarchy whereby cross-connects in different levels perform multiplexing and demultiplexing functions at different granularities. We present a traffic grooming approach that can be implemented in a centralized or distributed fashion, based on the novel design that takes advantage of algorithm efficiency and a simple threshold mechanism to decide when grooming is economical. Our approach allows nodes to perform grooming and degrooming automatically, which is desired in the next-generation optical network where circuits are setup and torn-down dynamically through signalling.