Requirements for Supporting P2MP in Flexi-Grid Networks
Multicasting over WDM optical networks has enabled many popular Point-to-Multipoint (P2MP) applications, such as video conference, interactive distance learning, replicated database, distributed computing, and so on. However, the low-rate multicasting traffic demands cannot make full use of the capacity of the entire wavelength. Flexi-grid network overcomes the fixed grid constraint of Wavelength Switched Optical Network (WSON) by flexible spectrum allocation based on the demand of the client request. It is an effective solution to address the problem of inefficient spectrum utilization. Therefore, it is essential to exploit multicasting over flexi-grid networks. This document covers the requirements for supporting P2MP over flexi-grid infrastructure. Specifically, the scope of requirements listed in this document covers the functionality that should be supported by the control plane.