An official website of the United States government
In optical networks, simulation is a cost-efficient and powerful way for network planning and design. It helps researchers and network designers quickly obtain preliminary results on their network performance and easily adjust the design. Unfortunately, most optical simulators are not open-source and there is currently a lack of optical network simulation tools that leverage machine learning techniques for network simulation. Compared to Wavelength Division Multiplexing (WDM) networks, Elastic Optical Networks (EON) use finer channel spacing, a more flexible way of using spectrum resources, thus increasing the network spectrum efficiency. Network resource allocation is a popular research topic in optical networks. In EON, this problem is classified as Routing, Modulation and Spectrum Allocation (RMSA) problem, which aims to allocate sufficient network resources by selecting the optimal modulation format to satisfy a call request. SimEON is an open-source simulation tool exclusively for EON, capable of simulating different EON setup configurations, designing RMSA and regenerator placement/assignment algorithms. It could also be extended with proper modelings to simulate CapEx, OpEx and energy consumption for the network. Deep learning (DL) is a subset of Machine Learning, which employs neural networks, large volumes of data and various algorithms to train a model to solve complex problems. In this paper, we extended the capabilities of SimEON by integrating the DeepRMSA algorithm into the existing simulator. We compared the performance of conventional RMSA and DeepRMSA algorithms and provided a convenient way for users to compare different algorithms’ performance and integrate other machine learning algorithms.
more »
« less
This content will become publicly available on December 18, 2025
FUSION: A Flexible Unified Simulator for Intelligent Optical Networking
The increasing demand for flexible and efficient optical networks has led to the development of Software-Defined Elastic Optical Networks (SD-EONs). These networks leverage the programmability of Software-Defined Networking (SDN) and the adaptability of Elastic Optical Networks (EONs) to optimize network performance under dynamic traffic conditions. However, existing simulation tools often fall short in terms of transparency, flexibility, and advanced functionality, limiting their utility in cutting-edge research. In this paper, we present a Flexible Unified Simulator for Intelligent Optical Networking (FUSION), a fully open-source simulator designed to address these limitations and provide a comprehensive platform for SD-EON research. FUSION integrates traditional routing and spectrum assignment algorithms with advanced machine learning and reinforcement learning techniques, including support for the Stable Baselines 3 library. The simulator also offers robust unit testing, a fully functional Graphical User Interface (GUI), and extensive documentation to ensure usability and reliability. Performance evaluations demonstrate the effectiveness of FUSION in modeling complex network scenarios, showcasing its potential as a powerful tool for advancing SD-EON research.
more »
« less
- Award ID(s):
- 2008530
- PAR ID:
- 10567858
- Publisher / Repository:
- IEEE International Conference on Advanced Networks and Telecommunications Systems (ANTS 2024)
- Date Published:
- Format(s):
- Medium: X
- Location:
- Guwahati, India
- Sponsoring Org:
- National Science Foundation
More Like this
-
-
Elastic optical networks (EONs) operating in the C-band have been widely deployed worldwide. However, two major technologies—multiband elastic optical networks (MB-EONs) and space division multiplexed elastic optical networks (SDM-EONs)—can significantly increase network capacity beyond traditional EONs. A one-time greenfield deployment of these flexible-grid technologies may not be practical, as existing investments in flexible-grid EONs need to be preserved and ongoing services must face minimal disruption. Therefore, we envision the coexistence of flexible-grid, multiband, and multicore technologies during the brownfield migration. Each technology represents a tradeoff between higher capacity and greater deployment overhead, directly impacting network performance. Moreover, as traffic demands continue rising, capacity exhaustion becomes inevitable. Considering the different characteristics of these technologies, we propose a robust network planning solution called Progressive Optics Deployment and Integration for Growing Yields (PRODIGY+) to gradually migrate current C-band EONs. PRODIGY+ employs proactive measures inspired by the Swiss Cheese Model, making the network robust to traffic peaks while meeting service level agreements. The upgrade strategy enables a gradual transition to minimize migration costs while continuously supporting increasing traffic demands. We provide a detailed comparison of our proposed PRODIGY+ strategy against baseline strategies, demonstrating its superior performance.more » « less
-
Innovation in optical networks is essential to delivering advanced performance for future smart city and wireless networks. Incorporating optical systems research in real-world platforms presents a number of challenges, which are addressed through recent advances in the use of software defined networking and emulation.more » « less
-
This paper proposes an evolutionary transfer learning approach (Evol-TL) for scalable quality-of-transmission (QoT) estimation in multi-domain elastic optical networks (MD-EONs). Evol-TL exploits a broker-based MD-EON architecture that enables cooperative learning between the broker plane (end-to-end) and domain-level (local) machine learning functions while securing the autonomy of each domain. We designed a genetic algorithm to optimize the neural network architectures and the sets of weights to be transferred between the source and destination tasks. We evaluated the performance of Evol-TL with three case studies considering the QoT estimation task for lightpaths with (i) different path lengths (in terms of the numbers of fiber links traversed), (ii) different modulation formats, and (iii) different device conditions (emulated by introducing different levels of wavelength-specific attenuation to the amplifiers). The results show that the proposed approach can reduce the average amount of required training data by up to while achieving an estimation accuracy above 95%.more » « less
-
The Cloud-Enhanced Open Software Defined Mobile Wireless Testbed for City-Scale Deployment (COSMOS) platform is a programmable city-scale shared multi-user advanced wireless testbed that is being deployed in West Harlem of New York City [1]. To keep pace with the significantly increased wireless link bandwidth and to effectively integrate the emerging C-RANs, COSMOS is designed to incorporate a fast programmable core network for providing connections across different computing layers. A key feature of COSMOS is its dark fiber based optical x-haul network that enables both highly flexible, user defined network topologies and experimentation directly in the optical physical layer. The optical architecture of COSMOS was presented in [2]. In this abstract, we present the tools and services designed to configure and monitor the performance of optical paths and topologies of the COSMOS testbed. In particular, we present the SDN framework that allows testbed users to implement experiments with application-driven control of optical and data networking functionalities.more » « less
