Abstract
This work proposes Lightpath switching to nonuniformly diversify the particular resource configurations allocated to extreme-scale optical wavelength-routed reservations at intermittent intervals within their allotted uptimes. Lightpath switching exposes the traffic scheduler to enhanced potential for predictably apportioning unconsumed and fragmented resources, thereby increasing utilization efficiency without requirement for augmenting the underlying network equipment. The price of effective lightpath switching is accrued as costly transponder reconfiguration overhead. Cost is assessed at per-session granularity and then halved at scale through the incorporation of heuristics designed to incentivize lightpath resource affinity and minimize surplus lightpath switching.11This work has been supported by National Science Foundation grants ACI-1541434 and CNS-1406370, as well as Department of Energy grant DE-SC0012115TDD.