Scheduling Large Data Flows in Elastic Optical Inter-Datacenter Networks

In this paper, we consider the problem of routing, modulation, and spectrum assignment (RMSA) for data- flow transfers in elastic optical networks. We design a two-dimensional resource model, in which each data transfer with known data size can be assigned a rectangular block of resources that spans both the spectrum and time dimensions. Furthermore, the dynamic spectral resource allocation problem in elastic optical networks is simplified to the two-dimensional rectangle packing problem. We design a three-tuple for each rectangle placement, and develop a dynamic heuristic algorithm, Best Rectangle Fit (BRF), to efficiently schedule requests while minimizing fragmentation in both spectrum and time domains. We simulate the proposed algorithm, and the results show that the proposed RMSA algorithm (BRF) can greatly decrease blocking probability and increase spectrum utilization.