Network Design

Making an efficient design of a network is a very broad and complex matter, which needs to be tackled in detail before rolling-out a new network or upgrading an existing one. A well-designed network can decrease the network related costs (both investment/CapEx and operational/OpEx costs) with a significant factor. As such it is extremely important to make a thorough evaluation of the design before implementing the network in practice. The increasing power of software simulation tools can be of great help here.

Different aspects come into play when designing a specific network. In multi-layer networks (where the traffic in upper layers or client layers is transported in underlying or server layers) a tight coupling of the design of each layer is required in order to optimize the overall network. Also the timing aspect (e.g. when to roll-out a new technology in the network) is a complex yet very important aspect of network planning.

COMSOF has been involved in several projects concerning the design and planning of both access and core networks. Hereby different technologies have been considered and multiple generic as well as specific design tools have been developed. A lot of know-how concerning the different aspects of network design has been acquired by meetings and discussions with the people from the IBCN-research group who are very experienced in these matters.

Some of our accomplishments in this area include:

• Development of a network planning tool for Optical (WDM) networks. This tool was called WDMNetDesign and was acquired by OPNET in 2002, resulting in OPNET's WDMGuru.
• Development of a simulation tool for the optimal migration of a flat to a hierarchical switching network.
• Design, evaluation and testing of a NGN platform for delivering new multimedia services such as iDTV.
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