Network Design and Architectures for Highly Dynamic Next-Generation IP-Over-Optical Long Distance Networks

The DARPA CORONET project seeks to develop the target network architectures and technologies needed to build next-generation long-distance IP-over-Optical-Layer (IP/OL) networks. These next-generation networks are expected to scale 10–100 times larger than today's largest commercial IP/OL network. Furthermore, DARPA has established advanced objectives for very rapid provisioning of new IP or private line connections, very rapid restoration against up to three simultaneous network failures, and future dynamic “wavelength” services ranging from speeds of 40–800 Gigabits per second. Besides these ambitious goals, the CORONET project seeks to establish a commercially-viable network architecture that supports both commercial and government services. In this paper, we describe the CORONET program requirements, and present our initial architectures and analysis of the early phases of this long-term project. We propose a novel 2-Phase Fast Reroute restoration method that achieves 50–100 ms restoration in the IP-Layer in a cost-effective manner, and a commercially viable OL restoration method that can meet the rapid CORONET requirements. We also estimate the magnitude of the extra capacity needed to provide dynamic wavelength services compared to that of static services, and show that the extra capacity to restore a small percentage of high priority traffic against multiple failures requires a small amount of extra capacity compared to that of single failures.