HARDWARE AND SOFTWARE METHODOLOGIES FOR DYNAMIC RESOURCE ALLOCATION IN VIRTUALIZED FLEXIBLE-GRID OPTICAL NETWORKS

摘要

Embodiments of the present invention are directed to systems and methods for allocating spectrum of a flexible-grid optical network to a plurality of virtual links. Given a set of optical channels of different line rates and channel widths, a user can reserve one of the optical channels as a long-term reservation. The user can later elect to downgrade its optical channel to a smaller optical channel with lower line rate and less spectrum, for example, when the user's traffic demands decrease. The user may return (e.g., sell or de-allocate) an amount of unused spectrum to the carrier, and the carrier creates and manages a resource pool to gather unused spectrum from users. When the user's traffic increases, the user may obtain (e.g., purchase) additional spectrum from the carrier's resource pool and/or upgrade the user's optical channel to an optical channel having a higher line rate.

主权项

1. An apparatus for allocating resources in a flexible-grid optical network, the apparatus comprising:
a physical network terminal that is part of a first virtual link of a virtual optical network and a second virtual link of the virtual optical network; and a controller coupled to the physical network terminal, wherein the controller is configured to allocate a first spectrum of a first optical channel to the first virtual link, allocate a second spectrum of the first optical channel to the second virtual link, allocate all or part of a first unused spectrum of the first spectrum to a resource pool, and allocate all or part of an available spectrum of the resource pool to the second virtual link.