Information processing device, transmission path design method, and program

Abstract

This information processing device comprises: a management unit that manages link information including a wavelength band supported for each link; and a transmission path design unit that, on the basis of the link information, selects, as a link constituting the route of a transmission path, a link in which a wavelength band supported by an optical termination device in the transmission path can be used.

Description

Information processing device, transmission path design method, and program

[0001] The present invention relates to a technique for designing a transmission path.

[0002] In conventional transmission networks that use optical wavelength division multiplexing transmission, it is assumed that the wavelength band supported by the transmission equipment is a single wavelength band (e.g., L band), and that the installed fibers and optical terminal equipment also support this wavelength band. Under this assumption, there is no need to manage the supported wavelength bands in link management and optical terminal equipment management.

[0003] GNPy: Optical Route Planning Library, https: / / gnpy.readthedocs.io / en / master / , Internet, retrieved May 1, 2024. C+L-band CDC-ROADM for high-capacity network flexibility, June 2022, NTT Technical Journal

[0004] To expand the capacity of transmission networks, it is required to expand the wavelength bands used in transmission networks to multi-bands (C+L bands, etc.) (e.g., Non-Patent Document 2), and it is expected that in addition to links that support a single wavelength band, links that support multi-bands will increase. Also, from the viewpoint of economy, it is expected that optical terminal devices suitable for the application will be used.

[0005] However, as described above, the conventional technology assumes that the wavelength band supported by the transmission device and the optical terminal device is a single wavelength band, and does not manage the wavelength band supported by each link in link management. Therefore, the conventional technology has a problem in that it is not possible to select a link suitable for the optical terminal device to be used when designing a transmission path.

[0006] The present invention has been made in view of the above points, and has as its object to provide a technique that enables a link suitable for an optical terminal device to be used to be selected in designing a transmission path.

[0007] According to the disclosed technology, an information processing device is provided that includes: a management unit that manages link information including the wavelength bands supported by each link; and a transmission path design unit that selects, based on the link information, links that can use the wavelength bands supported by the optical terminal devices in the transmission path as links that constitute the route of the transmission path.

[0008] According to the disclosed technology, it is possible to select a link suitable for the optical terminal device to be used in designing a transmission path.

[0009] FIG. 1 is a diagram showing an example of the configuration of a conventional transmission network. FIG. 2 is a diagram showing an example of the configuration of a transmission system in an embodiment of the present invention. FIG. 3 is a diagram showing an example of information managed by a controller 100. FIG. 4 is a diagram showing an example of the configuration of the controller 100. FIG. 5 is a diagram showing an example of the configuration of the controller 100. FIG. 6 is a flowchart for explaining the operation of the controller 100. FIG. 7 is a diagram showing an example of design topology information. FIG. 8 is a diagram showing an example of the hardware configuration of an apparatus.

[0010] Hereinafter, an embodiment of the present invention will be described with reference to the drawings. The embodiment described below is merely an example, and the embodiment to which the present invention is applied is not limited to the following embodiment.

[0011] Below, first, the conventional technology and the problems will be described in more detail, and then the technology according to this embodiment will be described.

[0012] (Regarding the Prior Art) An example of the configuration of a conventional transmission network is shown in Figure 1. The transmission network shown in Figure 1 has two optical terminal devices 10 at both ends, and four transmission devices 20 between the two optical terminal devices 10. In addition, transmission paths (optical wavelength paths) are set as shown in the figure.

[0013] 1 is an optical wavelength path established between optical terminal devices 10, and is a communication path for transmitting optical signals at a specific frequency in a WDM grid. Furthermore, the transmission device 20 is a reconfigurable optical add drop multiplexing (ROADM) or an all-photonics network (APN-G / I) device, etc. The optical terminal device 10 is a transponder, an APN device (APN-T), etc.

[0014] In a conventional transmission network such as that shown in FIG. 1, the wavelength band supported by the transmission device 20 is a single wavelength band (e.g., the L band), and it is assumed that the installed fiber and optical terminal device 10 also support this wavelength band.

[0015] In such a case, management of supported wavelength bands is not required for link management and optical terminal device management, and in transmission path design, a route and wavelength between optical terminal devices 10 are selected, transmission quality is estimated, and the transmission quality estimate is compared with the quality tolerance of the optical terminal device 10 to confirm that it is within the allowable value, thereby completing the transmission path design. For transmission quality estimation, tools provided by each vendor or the open source software GNPy (Non-Patent Document 1) are expected to be used.

[0016] It is assumed that a catalog value of a vendor product is used as the quality tolerance of the optical terminal device 10. The quality tolerance is, for example, noise tolerance or dispersion tolerance, and the noise tolerance may be expressed by the optical signal to noise ratio (OSNR).

[0017] (Regarding Issues) To expand the capacity of future transmission networks, it is necessary to expand the wavelength bands used to multiple bands (C+L bands, etc.) (see, for example, Non-Patent Document 2). In addition, it is necessary to use optical terminal devices 10 for different purposes, such as short-distance transmission and long-distance transmission, and to achieve economy by using devices from multiple vendors.

[0018] Conventional network management and design methods are unable to address the above-mentioned efforts to expand the capacity of future transmission networks, as they are unable to manage wavelength bands or design to accommodate wavelength bands.

[0019] More specifically, in conventional technologies, link management does not involve managing the wavelength bands supported by each link, making it impossible to select links suitable for the optical terminal equipment to be used when designing a transmission path.

[0020] In this embodiment, the above-mentioned problems are solved, and large capacity and economical operation are realized by realizing a network management method and a design method that are compatible with multi-band and a variety of optical terminal devices 10. The technology according to this embodiment will be described in detail below.

[0021] (System Configuration Example, Operation Overview) Fig. 2 shows an example of the configuration of a transmission system according to this embodiment. As shown in Fig. 2, this transmission system has a transmission network and a controller 100 that controls the transmission network. The transmission network shown in Fig. 2 is similar to a conventional transmission network, except for the presence of links that use multibands.

[0022] The controller 100 in this embodiment includes a function for designing transmission paths, but may not include a function for controlling the transmission network. The controller 100 may also be called an information processing device 100.

[0023] The transmission network has optical terminal devices 10A and 10B and transmission devices 20A to 20D, and has a connection configuration as shown in Figure 2. A transmission path is set up along the route of "optical terminal device 10A, transmission device 20A, transmission device 20C, transmission device 20D, optical terminal device 10B." In the following explanation, the optical terminal devices 10A, 10B and transmission devices 20A to 20D may be respectively indicated by symbols such as A, B, etc.

[0024] The controller 100 holds link information and optical network unit information. 3 shows examples of (a) link information and (b) optical network unit information held by the controller 100.

[0025] The link information includes information on the transmission devices 20 at both ends of each link, and the wavelength bands supported by the transmission devices 20. The wavelength bands may be expressed by wavelength band names such as C, L, C+L, etc., or by wavelength upper and lower limits such as 1530 to 1565 nm.

[0026] The link information may further include fiber information, which includes fiber attribute values ​​such as fiber length, loss (attenuation), and the like.

[0027] In the example of FIG. 3A, for example, link #1 is a link between transmission device 20A and transmission device 20B, and the wavelength band of this link is indicated as C+L.

[0028] The optical terminal device information includes the wavelength band, mode, and quality tolerance supported by each optical terminal device 10. The wavelength band may be expressed as a wavelength band such as C, L, or C+L, or as an upper or lower wavelength limit such as 1530 to 1565 nm. The mode is information that specifies the modulation method, FEC method, etc. One optical terminal device 10 may support multiple modes.

[0029] If the optical network terminal 10 supports a plurality of wavelength bands or a plurality of modes, the quality tolerance may be determined according to the wavelength band or mode.

[0030] In the example of FIG. 3B, for example, the supported wavelength band, mode, and quality tolerance of the optical terminal device 10A are shown to be C, 101, and ●● dB, respectively.

[0031] When designing a transmission path, the controller 100 refers to link information and optical terminal device information, selects a route by limiting it to links that can use the wavelength band supported by the optical terminal device 10, and then checks whether the route satisfies quality tolerance. The processing flow of the controller 100 will be described later.

[0032] (Device Configuration) Fig. 4 shows an example configuration of the controller 100. As shown in Fig. 4, the controller 100 has a link information management unit 110, an optical terminal device management unit 120, and a transmission path design unit 130. Note that either or both of the link information management unit 110 and the optical terminal device management unit 120 may be provided outside the controller 100.

[0033] The link information management unit 110 stores and manages link information (e.g., FIG. 3A). The link information management unit 110 acquires link information from, for example, an external design system.

[0034] The optical terminal device management unit 120 stores and manages optical terminal device information (e.g., FIG. 3(b)). The optical terminal device management unit 120 acquires the optical terminal device information from, for example, an external design system. The optical terminal device management unit 120 may also communicate with the optical terminal device 10 and acquire the optical terminal device information from the optical terminal device 10. Note that in cases where the optical terminal device information is fixed information (such as when it is decided to use a specific optical terminal device 10), the optical terminal device management unit 120 may not be provided.

[0035] The link information management unit 110 and the optical terminal device management unit 120 may be collectively referred to as a "management unit" or a "storage unit." Furthermore, the link information management unit 110 and the optical terminal device management unit 120 may be individually referred to as a "management unit" or a "storage unit."

[0036] The transmission path design unit 130 performs route selection, wavelength selection, transmission quality selection, etc. Specifically, the transmission path design unit 130 receives a request for the optical terminal devices 10 that are the two end points of the transmission path and the required quality (bandwidth, etc.), selects a route and wavelength of the transmission path that satisfy the conditions related to the request, and responds with the design result.

[0037] 5, the controller 100 may further include a transmission path request receiving unit 140, a transmission path setting unit 150, a transmission path management unit 160, and a transmission device management unit 170 in addition to the configuration of FIG.

[0038] The transmission path request receiving unit 140 is a functional unit that receives a transmission path setting request from an external user. The transmission path setting unit 150 is a functional unit that communicates with the optical terminal device 10 and the transmission device 20 in accordance with the route and wavelength of the transmission path designed by the transmission path design unit 130, and sets the transmission path.

[0039] The transmission path management unit 160 is a functional unit that manages information about the set transmission paths. The transmission device management unit 170 is a functional unit that manages information about the amplifier performance, available wavelength bands, frequency grids, etc. of each transmission device 20.

[0040] (Processing Flow) Next, the operation of the transmission path design unit 130 of the controller 100 will be described with reference to the flowchart in Fig. 6. As a premise of the flow in Fig. 6, it is assumed that the link information management unit 110 and the optical terminal device management unit 120 respectively acquire and store link information and optical terminal device information from an external design system or the like.

[0041] In step S1 (step 1), the transmission path design unit 130 receives a request for setting a transmission path. The request includes information on the optical terminal devices 10 at both ends of the transmission path and the required quality (bandwidth, etc.).

[0042] In S2, the transmission path design unit 130 creates design topology information using the optical terminal device information (e.g., FIG. 3(b)) held by the optical terminal device management unit 120 and the link information (e.g., FIG. 3(a)) held by the link information management unit 110.

[0043] More specifically, the transmission path design unit 130 acquires the connection relationships and the wavelength bands supported by each link from the link information management unit 110, acquires the wavelength bands supported by each optical terminal device 10, quality tolerance, etc. from the optical terminal device management unit 120, and creates design topology information using these. An example of design topology information based on the information in Figures 3(a) and 3(b) is shown in Figure 7.

[0044] In S3 of the flow in FIG. 6, the transmission path design unit 130 uses the design topology information created in S2 to select a route and wavelength to be used in the requested transmission path.

[0045] More specifically, the transmission path design unit 130 selects a route so as to use only links that can use the wavelength band supported by the optical terminal device 10. In the example of design topology information shown in Fig. 7, the link between the transmission device 20B and the transmission device 20D is in the L band, and the optical terminal device 10 cannot use this link, so the transmission path design unit 130 excludes this link from the links that make up the route. After narrowing down the candidate links to be used in the route in this way, the transmission path design unit 130 selects a route using logic such as k-shortest.

[0046] Furthermore, the transmission path design unit 130 identifies available wavelengths using information such as wavelength usage status of each transmission device 20, which is obtained from, for example, a database that manages information about the transmission devices 20 (which may be the transmission device management unit 170 described above), and then selects a wavelength using logic such as first fit. Note that the "technology for selecting a route from multiple candidate links and the technology for selecting a wavelength to be used in each link" itself is an existing technology, and any existing technology may be used in this embodiment.

[0047] In S4, the transmission path design unit 130 checks the transmission quality of the transmission path. Specifically, the transmission path design unit 130 estimates the quality of the transmission path passing through the route selected in S3, compares the quality estimation result with the quality tolerance of the optical terminal device 10, and checks whether the transmission path satisfies the quality related to the quality tolerance. Note that any method may be used for quality estimation, and for example, a vendor tool or GNPy (Non-Patent Document 1) or the like may be used.

[0048] If the transmission path does not satisfy the quality (if the quality becomes worse than the quality tolerance), the transmission path design unit 130 selects, for example, another route, selects a wavelength again, and checks the transmission quality. Here, it is assumed that a transmission path (route and wavelength) that satisfies the quality is obtained.

[0049] In S5, the transmission path design unit 130 responds (outputs) the transmission path design result.

[0050] The transmission path design unit 130 may select multiple candidates in the route / wavelength selection in S3, check whether each of the multiple candidates satisfies the quality conditions in the transmission quality confirmation in S4, and return multiple candidates that satisfy the transmission quality in S5. Also, in S5, the candidate with the best quality among the multiple candidates that satisfy the transmission quality may be returned.

[0051] (Hardware Configuration Example) Any of the devices (controller 100, information processing device) described in this embodiment can be realized, for example, by causing a computer to execute a program. This computer may be a physical computer or a virtual machine on the cloud.

[0052] That is, the device can be realized by executing a program corresponding to the processing performed by the device using hardware resources such as a CPU and memory built into a computer. The program can be recorded on a computer-readable recording medium (such as a portable memory) and stored or distributed. The program can also be provided via a network such as the Internet or email.

[0053] Fig. 8 is a diagram showing an example of the hardware configuration of the computer. The computer in Fig. 8 includes a drive device 1000, an auxiliary storage device 1002, a memory device 1003, a CPU 1004, an interface device 1005, a display device 1006, an input device 1007, an output device 1008, and the like, all of which are interconnected via a bus B. The computer may further include a GPU.

[0054] The program that realizes the processing on the computer is provided by a recording medium 1001, such as a CD-ROM or a memory card. When the recording medium 1001 storing the program is set in the drive device 1000, the program is installed from the recording medium 1001 to the auxiliary storage device 1002 via the drive device 1000. However, the program does not necessarily have to be installed from the recording medium 1001, but may be downloaded from another computer via a network. The auxiliary storage device 1002 stores the installed program as well as necessary files, data, etc.

[0055] The memory device 1003 reads and stores a program from the auxiliary storage device 1002 when an instruction to start the program is received. The CPU 1004 realizes functions related to the device in accordance with the program stored in the memory device 1003. The interface device 1005 is used as an interface for connecting to a network, etc. The display device 1006 displays a GUI (Graphical User Interface) or the like according to the program. The input device 1007 is composed of a keyboard, mouse, buttons, a touch panel, etc., and is used to input various operation instructions. The output device 1008 outputs the results of calculations.

[0056] (Summary, Effects, etc. of the Embodiments) As described above, the technology described in the present embodiment makes it possible to select a link suitable for the optical terminal device to be used when designing a transmission path. As a result, for example, it becomes possible to expand the wavelength band used in the transmission network to multi-band (C+L band, etc.) and use optical terminal devices for different purposes, such as short-distance transmission and long-distance transmission. This makes it possible to realize high-capacity and economical optical networks.

[0057] The following additional notes are provided regarding the above-described embodiments.

[0058] <Additional Notes> (Additional Item 1) An information processing device comprising: a management unit that manages link information including a wavelength band supported by each link; and a transmission path design unit that selects, based on the link information, links in a transmission path that can use a wavelength band supported by an optical terminal device, as links that constitute a route of the transmission path. (Additional Item 2) The information processing device according to Additional Item 1, wherein the management unit further manages optical terminal device information including a wavelength band supported by each optical terminal device and a quality tolerance. (Additional Item 3) The information processing device according to Additional Item 1, wherein the transmission path design unit checks whether the quality of the transmission path constituted by the one or more selected links satisfies the quality tolerance of the optical terminal device. (Additional Item 4) A transmission path design method executed by an information processing device, comprising: referring to a management unit that manages link information including a wavelength band supported by each link, and selecting, based on the link information, links in a transmission path that can use a wavelength band supported by an optical terminal device, as links that constitute a route of the transmission path. (Supplementary Item 5) A non-transitory storage medium storing a program for causing a computer to function as the transmission path design unit in the information processing device according to any one of Supplementary Items 1 to 3.

[0059] Although the present embodiment has been described above, the present invention is not limited to such a specific embodiment, and various modifications and changes are possible within the scope of the gist of the present invention described in the claims.

[0060] 10 Optical terminal device 20 Transmission device 100 Controller (information processing device) 110 Link information management unit 120 Optical terminal device management unit 130 Transmission path design unit 140 Transmission path request reception unit 150 Transmission path setting unit 160 Transmission path management unit 170 Transmission device management unit 1000 Drive device 1001 Recording medium 1002 Auxiliary storage device 1003 Memory device 1004 CPU 1005 Interface device 1006 Display device 1007 Input device 1008 Output device

Claims

1. An information processing device comprising: a management unit that manages link information including the wavelength bands supported by each link; and a transmission path design unit that selects, based on the link information, links that can use the wavelength bands supported by optical terminal devices in a transmission path as links that constitute the route of the transmission path.

2. The information processing device according to claim 1, wherein the management unit further manages optical terminal device information including supported wavelength bands and quality tolerance for each optical terminal device.

3. The information processing device according to claim 1, wherein the transmission path design unit checks whether the quality of the transmission path formed by the selected one or more links satisfies the quality tolerance of the optical terminal device.

4. A transmission path design method executed by an information processing device, which refers to a management unit that manages link information including the wavelength band supported by each link, and selects, based on the link information, links that can use the wavelength band supported by the optical terminal device in the transmission path as links that constitute the route of the transmission path.

5. A program for causing a computer to function as the transmission path design unit in the information processing device according to any one of claims 1 to 3.

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