Optimal transceiver scheduling in WDM/TDM networks

In this paper, we study the benefits of using tunable transceivers for reducing the required number of electronic ports in wavelength-division- multiplexing/time-division multiplexing optical networks. We show that such transceivers can be used to efficiently "groom" subwavelength traffic in the optical domain and so can significantly reduce the amount of terminal equipment needed compared with the fixed-tuned case. Formulations for this "tunable grooming" problem are provided, where the objective is to schedule transceivers so as to minimize the required number of ports needed for a given traffic demand. We establish a relationship between this problem and edge colorings of graphs which are determined by the offered traffic. Using this relationship, we show that, in general, this problem is NP-complete, but we are able to efficiently solve it for many cases of interest. When the number of wavelengths in the network is not limited, each node is shown to only require the minimum number of transceivers (i.e., no more transceivers than the amount of traffic that it generates). This holds regardless of the network topology or traffic pattern. When the number of wavelengths is limited, an analogous result is shown for both uniform and hub traffic in a ring. We then develop a heuristic algorithm for general traffic that uses nearly the minimum number of transceivers. In most cases, tunable transceivers are shown to reduce the number of ports per node by as much as 60%. We also consider the case where traffic can dynamically change among an allowable set of traffic demands. Tunability is again shown to significantly reduce the port requirement for a nonblocking ring, both with and without rearrangements.