Delay-Differentiated Routing in Meshed Backbone Networks

Abstract:
Today’s network applications require strict quality of service (QoS) guarantees, e. g., in terms of availability or delay. Due to shortest path routing in backbone networks, the point-to-point delay is usually very low. However, this is not only true for the services with strict delay requirements but also for all others. Since there is no customer-perceivable delay difference, it is difficult for the network operator to justify differences in pricing between low-delay and other services. We propose a routing and network reconfiguration approach for packet-optical networks that enforces delay differentiation by routing on non-shortest paths. We present an integer linear program formulation and study the effects of our approach by simulation in two backbone topologies. We show that a considerable number of services can be routed with delay differentiation if the use of additional spectral resources is allowed.