Multi-layer design of an MPLS-TP based Carrier Ethernet network

Since its definition by Metro Ethernet Forum (MEF), Carrier Ethernet (CE) service is becoming more and more important for service providers and network operators. The recently-developed MPLS-TP technology can be adopted to efficiently support CE over the Optical Transport Network (OTN). In order to reduce energy consumption and complexity, OTN relies on optical bypass at switching nodes. This makes optical signals subject to the physical-layer impairments. Driven by these considerations we propose a CE-based multi-layer network design approach, defining a reference node architecture and providing two heuristic algorithms to optimize resources jointly at the MPLS-TP and at the optical layer, while taking physical impairments into account. We finally show results of the application of the design algorithms on case-study networks.