Beyond dual homing: Benefits from multi-layer networking

To meet high availability requirements in a cost efficient manner necessitates the development of advanced techniques to optimize the interaction between network layers. As network architectures heavily influence network planning, we conduct our multi-layer studies under the prism of homing architectures. Alternative homing architectures to traditional dual homing are studied, focusing on the incurring network equipment costs, availability, and energy consumption. Case study results highlighting the occurring trade-offs are presented. It is shown that significant savings in capital expenditures (CAPEX) can be obtained by deploying a shared router strategy, while the availability reduction is quantified. Additionally, it is shown that a CAPEX optimized network yields solutions having minimum energy consumption for IP over WDM and IP over OTN architectures. However, the most cost efficient architecture is not always the least energy consuming.