Class based availability considerations in GMPLS networks

Extended use of MPLS technology in transport networks which improves routing performance introduced some more sophisticated requirements like Advanced Network Management, Quality of Service (QoS) and Resource Optimization. Generalized Multiprotocol Label Switching (GMPLS) architecture mostly meet these requirements however, connection and network availability needs to be considered. In this paper, we propose a new survivable connection provisioning scheme based on Spare Capacity Allocation (SCA) to maximize resource utilization while guaranteeing availability requirement defined in Service Level Agreement (SLA). We also present two additional class-based heuristic methods, namely Least Reliable Path (LRP) and Exchange Method (EM) in order to minimize blocking probability of incoming connection requests. We compare the performance of the optimization-based model and the proposed heuristics by simulation. The simulation results show that the LRP method leads to the least blocking probability while the SCA-based connection provisioning and the EM demonstrates the same blocking probability level. Furthermore, it is also shown that the heuristics do not introduce additional resource overbuild to the network when compared to the SCA-based model for different load levels.