Draft Expiration Date : August

Classic IP traffic engineering considers a fixed IP layer topology. In this draft, we address the limitations imposed by such static network topology. This work is motivated by introducing dynamically provisioned links to improve static IP traffic engineering constraints, and leverage the freedom of provisioning links on demand. This draft introduces the concept of a closed-loop link provisioning process for dynamic IP link configuration in an automatically switched transport network. We identify major phases, which completes an automatic link-provisioning cycle. First in the traffic engineering phase, both network internal information and external information can be applied to proactively or reactively triggering circuit switched links. Secondly in the network design phase, we distinguish different types of link design. Finally in the choice phase, we outline a set of criteria for choosing a final link amongst a set of candidate links. The criteria are based on maximizing the value of the user network, where value is computed from: bandwidth, distance, and duration. We propose these criteria be utilized in studies of dynamic link provisioning leveraging automatically switched transport networks (ASTN). Table of