Optimal scheduling of network consolidation

To increase the capacity efficiency of provisioning oriented optical networks we have already proposed a three phase network development lifecycle, i.e. traditional provisioning phase and network extension phase extended with a consolidation phase [1]. Consolidation is a re-optimization and re-arrangement of the network on a certain extent. One of the most important questions concerning the consolidation is when re-configuration actions, i.e. the consolidation phases, should be performed. In this paper we apply some network state descriptors to schedule the consolidation. The descriptors can be classified into two groups. Local-i.e. network element level -descriptors like relative load of a link Global -i.e. network level -descriptors, like relative load of the network. During the examinations we compared the efficiency of the strategies based on these descriptors with the most trivial scheduling solution, when the consolidation is applied at regular intervals. Based on the results we set up some recommendations about the application of these consolidation strategies.