Multi-layer traffic engineering: performance evaluation under a physical capacity constraint

Multi-layer traffic engineering (MTE) dynamically reconfigures the logical network as needed by the changing traffic pattern offered to the network: e.g., in the case of an IP-over-WDM network, the MTE strategy reconfigures the logical IP network. However, only a limited amount of physical resources is available in the underlying flexible network: e.g., each WDM system is able to multiplex a limited number of wavelength channels onto the same fiber. The paper investigates the impact this physical capacity constraint may impose on the performance of such MTE strategies.