Virtual Fiber Networking and Impact of Optical Path Grooming on Creating Efficient Layer One Services

This paper presents a novel “virtual fiber” network service that exploits wavebands. This service provides virtual direct tunnels that directly convey wavelength paths to connect customer facilities. To improve the resource utilization efficiency of the service, a network design algorithm is developed that can allow intermediate path grooming at limited nodes and can determine the best node location. Numerical experiments demonstrate the effectiveness of the proposed service architecture. key words: waveband, optical path grooming, virtual fiber networking, virtual private network, layer one service