1. Technical Field of the Invention
The present invention relates generally to communications networks. More particularly, the present invention relates to a system and method for optimizing the deployment of network elements over a period of time in a network, e.g., a Fiber Optic Network, that routes bandwidth demands having multiple channel rate requirements and variable time points. In addition, the present patent application provides a scheme for routing demands in a Fiber Optic Network using Time Slot Assignment (TSA) technology.
2. Description of Related Art
Installing, maintaining, and upgrading a communications network is very costly. Huge expenditures are involved in deploying suitable network equipment at predetermined locations and establishing transmission paths or conduits therebetween via an appropriate physical medium (or, media). Because of these cost considerations, network operators have to be circumspect about when and where to put in a new network or expand an existing one.
Furthermore, information transport—the primary function of a communications network—needs to be efficiently performed in a network in order to optimize its size so that costs associated with unnecessary expansion of the network, sub-optimal deployment/upgrading of the equipment, etc., for example, are avoided. As is well known, efficient network usage generally implies using available channel capacity or capacities efficiently, in addition to employing techniques that achieve cost-effective routing of information via available network equipment.
It should be readily apparent that there is a need for planning tools that enable network operators and owners to schedule equipment deployment intelligently, especially in light of the aforementioned considerations. In addition, such tools have lately become even more essential because of the ever-increasing need for the deployment of high-capacity networks (thus involving more sophisticated and expensive equipment) capable of transporting a wide variety of information—voice, data, video, multimedia, and the like—at phenomenal transport rates.
Conventional solutions in this regard typically employ mathematical modeling or simulation techniques coupled with optimization procedures to arrive at estimates for placement of network equipment that routes information as efficiently as possible. Although such methodologies represent a significant advancement in the field of communications network modeling, there exist several shortcomings and deficiencies in the state of the art.
First, the existing methods treat demand, a quantified volume of bandwidth requested to transfer information over a network path, as a time-independent parameter, thereby compressing all demands—current and projected—to be serviced by the network to a single point in time. In other words, all network equipment required to satisfy both current and projected demands is treated as operational at a single instance. Those skilled in the art should readily recognize that while such a technique may yield a “good” first approximation, it is nevertheless unsatisfactory for accurate planning purposes where new network portions (e.g., rings) are built in a phased manner across the life of a deployment plan, typically stretching over several quarters or years.
Further, as a by-product of treating demands as time-invariant entities, resultant mathematical formulations become formidable because, typically, several hundreds of thousands of demand quantities—including demand forecasts—need to be optimized (that is, demands to be optimally routed in a network) over a deployment plan. Computation loads therefore become enormous, leading to critical time delays in obtaining results which often tend to be unstable because of the unwieldy modeling efforts.
In addition, the existing solutions typically consider only a single type of channel bandwidth for the demand quantities that need to be optimized. Moreover, the channel rate thus considered is oftentimes a lower rate, thereby necessitating decomposition of demands of higher channel bandwidth rates into equivalent demand units of the lower rate used. However, no controls are implemented to ensure that these equivalent lower rate demands are routed together on the same network paths or to the same intended destinations. Clearly, such routing is unacceptable and is only a poor approximation of the actual routing loads in the network.
Yet another drawback in the current network-planning methodologies is where the underlying modeling apparatus does not accurately reflect today's network transport technology. For example, where Fiber Optic Network rings are implemented, current solutions yield results which are not compatible with the transport technology that is widely deployed.