Ciena Corporation

Nortel Networks Corporation

Paul Littlewood

David W Boertjes

Marc Holness

Gerard Leo Swinkels

James St Harley

David Miedema

Donald Russell Ellis

Michel Belanger

Michael Y Frankel

John P Mateosky

Malcolm Betts

Kevin S Meagher

Petar Djukic

Kaniz A Mahdi

Todd D Morris

Emil Janulewicz

David Jordan Krauss

Christine Tremblay

Michel P Bélanger

Md Nooruzzaman

Nabih Alloune

System and methods for autonomous resource partitioning in a network include a resource controller configured to provision resources which are any of virtual resources and physical resources in one or more layers in the network and monitor availability of the resources in the network; a resource manager configured to determine the any of virtual resources and physical resources as required for Quality of Service (QoS) in the network; a resource broker configured to advertise and assign resource requests to corresponding resources; and a partition manager configured to track the utilization of the resources provided by the one or more layers and to adjust resource usage of the resources in negotiation with the resource broker to minimize a cost of implementation.

Autonomic resource partitions for adaptive networks

A method, a controller, and an optical network element are configured to perform steps of monitoring one or more optical links each formed by optical transceivers which are configured to provide variable capacity via a plurality of modulation formats; based on the monitoring, causing corresponding optical transceivers for the one or more optical links to operate at a first modulation format different from a second modulation format providing excess capacity; and mapping the excess capacity to bandwidth useable by one or more services managed by the one or more of the management system, the management plane, and the control plane.

Systems and methods for managing excess optical capacity and margin in optical networks

Systems and methods of network resource optimization based on time-varying traffic in an optical network with a filterless architecture include determining traffic variations based on the time-varying traffic in the optical network; and adjusting one or more of transceivers and wavelengths between nodes in the optical network based on the traffic variations and using the filterless architecture. The adjusting minimizes the number of the transceivers and the wavelengths based on the traffic variations and the time-varying traffic. The optical network can geographically span multiple time zones, contributing to the time-varying traffic.

Network resource optimization based on time-varying traffic in optical networks

A method, a network element, and a network include determining excess margin relative to margin needed to ensure performance at a nominal guaranteed rate associated with a flexible optical modem configured to communicate over an optical link; causing the flexible optical modem to consume most or all of the excess margin, wherein the capacity increased above the nominally guaranteed rate includes excess capacity; and mapping the excess capacity to one or more logical interfaces for use by a management system, management plane, and/or control plane. The logical interfaces can advantageously be used by the management system, management plane, and/or control plane as one of restoration bandwidths or short-lived bandwidth-on-demand (BOD) connections, such as sub-network connections (SNCs) or label switched paths (LSPs).

A method, a network element, and a network include determining excess margin relative to margin needed to insure performance at a nominal guaranteed rate associated with a flexible optical modem configured to communicate over an optical link; causing the flexible optical modem to consume most or all of the excess margin, wherein the capacity increased above the nominal guaranteed rate includes excess capacity; and mapping the excess capacity to one or more logical interfaces for use by a management system, management plane, and/or control plane. The logical interfaces can advantageously be used by the management system, management plane, and/or control plane as one of restoration bandwidth or short-lived bandwidth-on-demand (BOD) connections, such as sub-network connections (SNCs) or label switched paths (LSPs).

Described are a system and method for managing a service transported over a transport network between first and second service termination points. Packet traffic associated with the service is received at a service termination point connected to the transport network. Performance of the packet traffic is measured at the service termination point. The measured performance of the packet traffic and the service are correlated to produce a performance of service (PoS) service metric. Based on the PoS service metric, other service metrics associated with the service are correlated, including a rate of service (RoS) service metric and availability of service (AoS) service metric. These service metrics can be used to develop service level agreement (SLA) and service level metrics that define the operation of the service and operation of the network supporting those services.

Service metrics for managing services transported over circuit-oriented and connectionless networks

An optical network and method for managing a service across an optical network over a dedicated circuit between first and second service termination points include generating a service performance report message (PRM) at each service termination point. Each service PRM has service-specific information related to a performance of the service as determined by the service termination point generating that service PRM. Each service PRM identifies the service to which the service-specific information in that service PRM pertains. Each service termination point transmits the service PRM generated by that service termination point across the optical network over the dedicated circuit to the other service termination point through a service management channel of an optical transport facility. Either of the first and second service termination points is accessed to evaluate an end-to-end performance of the service based on a comparison of the service PRM generated by the first service termination point with the service PRM generated by the second service termination point.

Service management channel for managing an optical networking service

Described are a system and method for managing a service across an optical network over a dedicated circuit between a first and second service termination points. Each service termination point generates a service performance report message. Each service performance report messages has information related to a performance of the service as determined by the service termination point generating the message. The service termination points exchange the service performance report messages over a service management channel to enable an assessment of the performance of the service based on the service performance report messages from both service termination points. Through access to and use of the service management channel, service providers can implement an edge management model or a core management model for measuring the performance of their services with respect to service level agreements governing those services.

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Johns Creek, GA, United States of America

Paul Littlewood