Experimental demonstration of OBS/WSON multi-layer optical switched networks with an OpenFlow-based unified control plane

In the current IP/optical multi-layer networks, the control approaches for IP and optical domains are separated, which is inconvenient for the end-to-end service provisioning. Therefore, the investigation of a unified control plane for multi-layer networks is a very important issue for network carriers, since it can simplify the network manageability, improve the network agility and reduce the operational expenditure (OPEX) and capital expenditure (CAPEX). The OpenFlow protocol, which has been proposed recently, provides a potential solution to address such an issue. On the other hand, the multi-layer optical burst switching (OBS)/wavelength switched optical network (WSON) has been proposed as one of the promising paradigms for future optical Internet, and the respective control plane for OBS and WSON layers under an overlay model has been intensively investigated in our previous works. In light of this, in this paper, we experimentally present an OpenFlow-based unified control plane for OBS/WSON multi-layer optical switched networks. The protocol extensions and design details of the OpenFlow-controlled OBS/WSON are discussed. By using two different signaling approaches (with and without confirmation mechanism during the lightpath provisioning period), we successfully demonstrate the overall feasibility of a unified control plane for OBS/WSON networks, and the performance of two signaling solutions is quantitatively evaluated in terms of end-to-end signaling latency and packet loss rate.