Demonstration of an SDN orchestrator for both flow provisioning and fault handling in an Ethernet-over-WDM Network

PROnet is a two-layer Research and Education Network (REN) deployed at and around the UT Dallas campus. PROnet makes use of a Software Defined Networking (SDN) orchestrator, described in this paper. The PROnet Orchestrator provides two critical functions in an Ethernet-over-Wavelength Division Multiplexing (WDM) network. The two functions are: 1) on-demand flow provisioning at the Ethernet layer and 2) coordinated fault handling at both the Ethernet and WDM layer. With the first function, the orchestrator automatically provisions optical circuits to efficiently satisfy the Ethernet flow fault-tolerant requirement. With the second function, the orchestrator coordinates response procedures at both layers in order to quickly re-route disrupted flows and ensure that the network is prepared to handle a potential second outage.