Software-defined DWDM optical networks: OpenFlow and GMPLS experimental study

Finding an effective and simple unified control plane (UCP) for IP/Dense Wavelength Division Multiplexing (DWDM) multi-layer optical networks is very important for network providers. Generalized Multi-Protocol Label Switching (GMPLS) has been in development for decades to control optical transport networks. However, GMPLS-based UCP for IP/DWDM multi-layer networks is extremely complex to be deployed in a real operational products because still there are a lot of non-capable GMPLS equipments. DRAGON (Dynamic Resource Allocation via GMPLS Optical Networks) [1] is a software that solves this issue making these equipments capable for working in a GMPLS network. On the other hand, OpenFlow (OF), one of the most widely used SDN (Software Defined Networking) implementations, can be used as a unified control plane for packet and circuit switched networks [2]. In this paper, we propose and experimentally evaluate two solutions using OpenFlow to control both packet and optical networks (OpenFlow Messages Mapping and OpenFlow Extension). These two solutions are compared with GMPLS-based UCP. The experimental results show that the OpenFlow Extension solution outperforms the OpenFlow Messages Mapping and GMPLS solutions.