Data analysis-based autonomic bandwidth adjustment in software defined multi-vendor optical transport networks

Network operators generally provide dedicated lightpaths for customers to meet the demand for high-quality transmission. Considering the variation of traffic load, customers usually rent peak bandwidth that exceeds the practical average traffic requirement. In this case, bandwidth provisioning is unmetered and customers have to pay according to peak bandwidth. Supposing that network operators could keep track of traffic load and allocate bandwidth dynamically, bandwidth can be provided as a metered service and customers would pay for the bandwidth that they actually use. To achieve cost-effective bandwidth provisioning, this paper proposes an autonomic bandwidth adjustment scheme based on data analysis of traffic load. The scheme is implemented in a software defined networking (SDN) controller and is demonstrated in the field trial of multi-vendor optical transport networks. The field trial shows that the proposed scheme can track traffic load and realize autonomic bandwidth adjustment. In addition, a simulation experiment is conducted to evaluate the performance of the proposed scheme. We also investigate the impact of different parameters on autonomic bandwidth adjustment. Simulation results show that the step size and adjustment period have significant influences on bandwidth savings and packet loss. A small value of step size and adjustment period can bring more benefits by tracking traffic variation with high accuracy. For network operators, the scheme can serve as technical support of realizing bandwidth as metered service in the future.