Hose-based cross-layer backbone network design with Benders decomposition

Network design is the process of dimensioning IP capacity over an optical network infrastructure to satisfy a given set of demands and reliability constraints. Specifically, we consider the problem of hose-based cross-layer network design, which seeks to find a minimum cost design that is able to route demand for all hose traffic matrices under all specified failure states. While most network design problems are solved as Mixed Integer Programs, a commercial solver can become intractable due to the scale of today's networks. We demonstrate how the classic Benders decomposition algorithm can be applied and improved for this problem and discuss practical implementation aspects. We showcase a horizontally scalable distributed framework to leverage the decomposable problem structure and solve millions of linear programs in a distributed manner, thereby making the network design problem tractable. In contrast to the conventional approach where failure states and traffic matrices are planned sequentially, the Benders algorithm finds global optimal designs across all traffic matrices and failure states. This leads to network designs with improved solution quality and reliability, with 20--30% less IP capacity and spectrum consumption, 50% less link augments and up to 20x faster runtime that enables design for hyper scale networks in a matter of hours.