Traffic grooming in WDM networks: past and future

TLDR

Traffic grooming combines low‑speed traffic streams onto high‑speed wavelengths to reduce network cost, and is increasingly vital for emerging technologies such as SONET/WDM rings and MPLS backbones. The article formally defines the traffic grooming problem and presents a general formulation covering many variants. It surveys the literature, revealing extensive prior research on traffic grooming. The authors propose ambitious future research directions driven by challenges posed by MP/spl lambda/S technology.

Abstract

Traffic grooming refers to techniques used to combine low-speed traffic streams onto high-speed wavelengths in order to minimize the networkwide cost in terms of line terminating equipment and/or electronic switching. Such techniques become increasingly important for emerging network technologies, including SONET/WDM rings and MPLS/MP/spl lambda/S backbones, for which traffic grooming is essential. In this article we formally define the traffic grooming problem, and we provide a general formulation that captures the features of a wide range of problem variants. We then present a comprehensive comparative survey of the literature that unveils the significant amount of research on this subject (the traffic grooming past). We also offer a broad set of ambitious research directions (the traffic grooming future) that are motivated by the exciting new challenges arising with the advent of MP/spl lambda/S technology.