This project is focused on optimization of multilayer application-aware networks. The key goal of the project is to develop, implement, and analyze models and algorithms for optimization of multilayer application-aware networks. An application-aware network can be defined as a network that is able to identify and classify applications and then use suitable optimization techniques to provision these application using resources accessible in the network in order to achieve acceptable application performance metrics. In turn, a multilayer network is a network modeled as a set of separate layers using various technologies and protocols applied to transmit data. In the context of this project, we assume that the network consists of two layers: packet layer and optical layer. The packet layer is used to directly serve the applications, i.e., to establish in the network demands required to serve various types of applications. In turn, the optical layer is used to establish virtual topologies to provision flows aggregated over the packet layer service demands.

The network optimization can be performed considering each single layer of the network separately. However, multilayer optimization allows to improve the overall network performance, namely, reduce CAPEX expenditures and at the same time holding the QoS (Quality of Service) parameters required by the applications by identifying the network configurations that jointly optimizes packet and optical resources. The idea of application-aware networking has been known for many years, however the vast majority of previous works in this area have been focused on a single layer (packet layer) optimization, i.e., the routing algorithms have been aware only of the packet layer resources and constraints. While at the same time, the configuration of optical layer resources have not been updated according to changing requirements. Moreover, recent trends in application characteristics, namely, the increasing diversity of requirements in almost all performance indicators (e.g., bitrate, latency, resilience, security) and new network capabilities trigger the need of multilayer application-aware networking.

In this Project, we form a hypothesis that it is possible to design new optimization methods for multilayer application-aware networks in order to improve the network performance by utilizing additional information that can be provided by cognitive processes including data analytics mechanisms based on machine learning methods. Potential recipients of the Project results are network operators, network service providers, and producers of network equipment and software, since results of the Project can be applied to design and optimize communication networks.

News and Seminars

2025.04.19 Paper (Knapińska A., Lechowicz P., Walkowiak K., “Provisioning Anycast Connections in Traffic-Prediction-Assisted Multilayer Networks“ [INVITED]) accepted to the 25th International Conference on Transparent Optical Networks ICTON 2025 (link https://icton2025.upc.edu/) held July 6-10, 2025 in Barcelona, Spain.

2025.04.17 Paper (Włodarczyk A., Knapińska A., Lechowicz P., Spadaro S., Walkowiak K., “Hit-Less Dynamic Reallocation for Time-Varying Traffic in Translucent SDM Optical Networks“ [INVITED]) accepted to the 25th International Conference on Transparent Optical Networks ICTON 2025 (link https://icton2025.upc.edu/) held July 6-10, 2025 in Barcelona, Spain.

2025.04.17 Paper (Knapińska A., Lechowicz P., Walkowiak K., “Energy Efficiency Analysis of Multilayer Networks with Time-Varying Traffic“) accepted to the 25th International Conference on Transparent Optical Networks ICTON 2025 (link https://icton2025.upc.edu/) held July 6-10, 2025 in Barcelona, Spain.

2025.03.25 Seminar: dr Piotr Lechowicz “QoT Estimation with Margin-Driven Transfer Learning in Time-Varying Optical Networks”

2025.03.25 Seminar: Adam Włodarczyk “Hit-Less Dynamic Reallocation for Time-Varying Traffic in Translucent SDM Optical Networks”

2025.03.14 Aleksandra Knapińska defended her PhD Thesis "Optimization of multilayer networks with time-varying traffic aided by traffic prediction", supervised by prof. Krzysztof Walkowiak and dr Piotr Lechowicz.

2025.03.10 Poster (Knapińska A., Lechowicz P., Walkowiak K., “Application-Aware Multilayer Network Performance Improvement Through Traffic Prediction Model Differentiation“) accepted for presentation at 6th Polish Conference on Artificial Intelligence PP-RAI’2025 (link https://pp-rai.pl/) held April 7-9, 2025 in Katowice, Poland.

2025.02.28 Seminar: Aleksandra Knapińska “Optimization of multilayer networks with time-varying traffic aided by traffic prediction” at Chalmers University of Technology, Gothenburg, Sweden

2025.02.05 Seminar: Aleksandra Knapińska “Optimization of multilayer networks with time-varying traffic aided by traffic prediction” at Department of Systems and Computer Networks, Wrocław University of Science and Technology

2024.11.29 Seminar: Aleksandra Knapińska “Optimization of multilayer networks with time-varying traffic aided by traffic prediction” at École de Technologie Supérieure, Montreal, Canada

2024.11.20 Seminar: Aleksandra Knapińska “Optimization of multilayer networks with time-varying traffic aided by traffic prediction” at Concordia University, Montreal, Canada

2024.10.20 Paper (Lechowicz P., Knapińska A., Włodarczyk A., Walkowiak K., “Traffic Weaver: Semi-synthetic time-varying traffic generator based on averaged time series“) accepted to SoftwareX, DOI information: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.softx.2024.101946

2024.09.18 Paper (Knapińska A., Lechowicz P., Walkowiak K., “Impact of Time-Varying Traffic Type on the Performance of Multilayer Networks“) accepted to the 20th International Conference on Network and Service Management CNSM 2024 (link http://www.cnsm-conf.org/2024/) held October 28-31, 2024 in Prague, Czech Republic.

2024.08.03 Paper (Włodarczyk A., Knapińska A., Lechowicz P., Walkowiak K., “Machine Learning Assisted Provisioning of Time-Varying Traffic in Translucent Optical Networks“) accepted to IEEE Access, DOI information: https://doi.org/10.1109/ACCESS.2024.3441522

2024.07.16 Paper (Petale S., Knapińska A., Erbayat E., Lechowicz P., Walkowiak K., Lin S.-C., Matsuura M., Hasegawa H., Subramaniam S., “PRODIGY+: A Robust Progressive Upgrade Approach For Elastic Optical Networks“) accepted to Journal of Optical Communications and Networking, DOI information: https://doi.org/10.1364/JOCN.525392

2024.05.14 Seminar: Dr Piotr Lechowicz “Telemetry, automation and QoT estimation machine learning integration for soft-failure mitigation”

2024.05.14 Seminar: Aleksandra Knapińska “ML-Assisted Optimization of Multilayer Networks with Time-Varying Traffic”

2024.04.30 Paper (Knapińska A., Lechowicz P., Walkowiak K., “Impact of Geographical Constraints on the Performance of Intent-Based Networks“) accepted to the 24th International Conference on Transparent Optical Networks ICTON 2024 (link https://icton2024.fbk.eu/) held July 14-18, 2024 in Bari, Italy.

2024.04.30 Paper (Włodarczyk A., Knapińska A., Lechowicz P., Spadaro S., Walkowiak K., “Adaptive Provisioning of Time-Varying Traffic in Translucent SDM Elastic Optical Networks“ [INVITED]) accepted to the 24th International Conference on Transparent Optical Networks ICTON 2024 (link https://icton2024.fbk.eu/) held July 14-18, 2024 in Bari, Italy.

2024.04.27 Paper (Duszyńska K., Polski P., Włosek M., Knapińska A., Lechowicz P., Walkowiak K., “XAI-Guided Optimization of a Multilayer Network Regression Model“) accepted to the 1st International Workshop on Trustworthy and Explainable Artificial Intelligence for Networks (TX4Nets) 2024 at the 23rd IFIP/IEEE Networking Conference 2024 (link https://networking.ifip.org/2024/) held June 3-6, 2024 in Thessaloniki, Greece.

2024.03.15 Paper (Knapińska A., Ayoub O., Rottondi C., Lechowicz P., Walkowiak K., “Explainable Artificial Intelligence-Guided Optimization of ML-Based Traffic Prediction“) accepted to the 28th International Conference on Optical Network Design and Modelling ONDM 2024 (link https://ondm2024.uc3m.es) held May 6-9, 2024 in Madrid, Spain.

2024.03.15 Paper (Ayoub O., Andreoletti D., Knapińska A., Goścień R., Lechowicz P., Leidi T., Giordano S., Rottondi C., Walkowiak K., “Liquid Neural Network-Based Adaptive Learning vs. Incremental Learning for Link Load Prediction amid Concept Drift Due to Network Failures“) accepted to the 28th International Conference on Optical Network Design and Modelling ONDM 2024 (link https://ondm2024.uc3m.es) held May 6-9, 2024 in Madrid, Spain.

2024.03.06 Paper (Knapińska A., Kanimba R., Yeşilyurt Y., Lechowicz P., Walkowiak K., “Application of Ensemble Regression Methods in Elastic Optical Network Optimization“) accepted to the 5th Polish Conference on Artificial Intelligence PP-RAI’2024 (link https://pp-rai.pl/) held April 18-20, 2024 in Warsaw, Poland.

2023.09.07 Demo (Severi L., Sacchetto M., Bianco A., Rottondi C., Knapińska A., Lechowicz P., “Demonstration of a Networked Music Performance Experience with MEVO“) accepted to the 4th International Symposium on the Internet of Sounds IS2 2023 (link https://internetofsounds.net/is2_2023/) held October 26-27, 2023 in Pisa, Italy.

2023.08.04 Paper (Knapińska A., Lechowicz P., Spadaro S., Walkowiak K., “Agnostic Prediction of Multiple Types of Time-Varying Traffic in Optical Networks“) accepted to the IEEE Global Communications Conference GLOBECOM 2023 (link https://globecom2023.ieee-globecom.org) held December 4-8, 2023 in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. Datasets available: https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/1e-0aFX6r07yHDlI88eEPRJ6WbjzL3d8-?usp=share_link

2023.06.24 Concert “Networked Music Performance: a New Way of Remote Connection of Musicians Over Long Distances“ in collaboration with Politecnico di Torino and Karol Lipiński Academy of Music in Wrocław. Details: https://amuz.wroc.pl/networked-music-performance-9423/?date=2023-06-24

2023.04.28 Paper (Knapińska A., Lechowicz P., Spadaro S., Walkowiak K., “Performance analysis of multilayer optical networks with time-varying traffic“ [INVITED]) accepted to the 23rd International Conference on Transparent Optical Networks ICTON 2023 (link https://icton2023.upb.ro/) held July 2-6, 2023 in Bucharest, Romania.

2023.04.28 Paper (Ułanowicz B., Dopart D., Knapińska A., Lechowicz P., Walkowiak K., “Combining random forest and linear regression to improve network traffic prediction“) accepted to the 23rd International Conference on Transparent Optical Networks ICTON 2023 (link https://icton2023.upb.ro/) held July 2-6, 2023 in Bucharest, Romania.

2023.03.28 Seminar: Matteo Sacchetto and Leonardo Severi “Networked Music Performance“

2023.03.25 Poster (Knapińska A., Lechowicz P., Węgier W., Walkowiak K., “Long-Term Prediction of Multiple Types of Time-Varying Network Traffic Using Chunk-Based Ensemble Learning“) accepted for presentation at 4th Polish Conference on Artificial Intelligence PP-RAI’2023 (link https://pp-rai.pl/) held April 24-26, 2023 in Łódź, Poland.

2023.03.21 Seminar: Aleksandra Knapińska “Explainable AI and Graph Neural Networks as Tools for Networking Problems”

2023.03.10 Paper (Knapińska A., Lechowicz P., Spadaro S., Walkowiak K., “On Advantages of Traffic Prediction and Grooming for Provisioning of Time-Varying Traffic in Multilayer Networks“) accepted to the 27th International Conference on Optical Network Design and Modelling ONDM 2023 (link https://ondm2023.inescc.pt/) held May 8-11, 2023 in Coimbra, Portugal.

2023.03.10 Paper (Knapińska A., Lechowicz P., Włodarczyk A., Walkowiak K., “Data Aggregation and Clustering for Traffic Prediction in Backbone Optical Networks“) accepted to the 27th International Conference on Optical Network Design and Modelling ONDM 2023 (link https://ondm2023.inescc.pt/) held May 8-11, 2023 in Coimbra, Portugal.

2023.03.02 Paper (Knapińska A., Goścień R., Lechowicz P., Walkowiak K., “Link Load Prediction in an Optical Network with Restoration Mechanisms“) accepted to Journal of Optical Communications and Networking, DOI information: https://doi.org/10.1364/JOCN.479849

2023.02.22 Paper (Goścień R., “Traffic-aware service relocation in software-defined and intent-based elastic optical networks“) accepted to Computer Networks, DOI information: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.comnet.2023.109660

2023.02.07 Seminar: Aleksandra Knapińska “Machine-learning-assisted optimization of multilayer application-aware networks” at Politecnico di Milano, Milan, Italy

2023.01.30 Seminar: Aleksandra Knapińska “Machine-learning-assisted optimization of multilayer application-aware networks” at Politecnico di Torino, Turin, Italy

2023.01.10 Seminar: Dr Piotr Lechowicz “Survivability-aware fragmentation”

2023.01.10 Seminar: Aleksandra Knapińska “Theoretical and practical research on optical networks in recent literature”

2022.10.25 Paper (Ganowicz A., Starosta B., Knapińska A., Walkowiak K., “Short-Term Network Traffic Prediction with Multilayer Perceptron“) accepted to the 6th SLAAI International Conference on Artificial Intelligence 2022 (link https://slaai.lk/icai/2022/) held December 1-2, 2022 in Kelaniya, Sri Lanka.

2022.10.02 Paper (Knapińska A., Lechowicz P., Węgier W., Walkowiak K., “Long-Term Prediction of Multiple Types of Time-Varying Network Traffic Using Chunk-Based Ensemble Learning“) accepted to Applied Soft Computing, DOI information: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.asoc.2022.109694 Dataset available: https://zasobynauki.pl/zasoby/internet-traffic-data-from-seattle-internet-exchange-point-for-different-frame-size-ranges-2021,67873/

2022.08.02 Paper (Knapińska A., Lechowicz P., Walkowiak K., “Prediction of Multiple Types of Traffic with a Novel Evaluation Metric Related to Bandwidth Blocking“) accepted to the IEEE Global Communications Conference GLOBECOM 2022 (link https://globecom2022.ieee-globecom.org) held December 4-8, 2022 in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. Dataset available: https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/1HbU55t4E9vp1jh2EIoOGsp_UfPkWyvpR?usp=sharing

2022.07.13 Paper (Lechowicz P., Knapińska A., Walkowiak K., “Delayed Squeezed Dedicated Path Protection in Spectrally-Spatially Flexible Optical Networks“) accepted to the 12th International Workshop on Resilient Networks Design and Modeling RNDM 2022 (link http://www.rndm.pl/2022/) held September 19-21, 2022 in Compiegne, France.

2022.05.17 Seminar: Prof. Krzysztof Walkowiak “Intent-based networking”

2022.03.29 Paper (Knapińska A., Półtorak K., Poręba D., Miszczyk J., Daniluk M., Walkowiak K., “On Feature Selection in Short-Term Prediction of Backbone Optical Network Traffic“) accepted to the 26th International Conference on Optical Network Design and Modelling ONDM 2022 (link https://ondm2022.com/) held May 16-19, 2022 in Warsaw, Poland.

2022.03.29 Paper (Goścień R., Knapińska A., “Efficient Network Traffic Prediction After a Node Failure“ [INVITED]) accepted to the 26th International Conference on Optical Network Design and Modelling ONDM 2022 (link https://ondm2022.com/) held May 16-19, 2022 in Warsaw, Poland.

2022.03.25 Paper (Cembaluk P., Aniszewski J., Knapińska A., Walkowiak K., “Forecasting the Network Traffic with PROPHET“) accepted to the 3rd Polish Conference on Artificial Intelligence PP-RAI’2022 (link http://pp-rai2022.umg.edu.pl/) held April 25-27, 2022 in Gdynia, Poland.

2022.01.25 Seminar: Aleksandra Knapińska “Long-term prediction of multiple types of time-varying network traffic using chunk-based ensemble learning”

2021.12.07 Seminar: Dr Piotr Lechowicz "Optimization of transceiver allocation for time-varying traffic"

2021.12.07 Seminar: Daniel Szostak "Timeseries analysis for network traffic forecasting”

2021.11.09 Seminar: Aleksandra Knapińska "Optimization methods for multilayer application-aware networks” at Universitat Politècnica de Catalunya, Barcelona, Spain

2021.07.07 Paper (Goścień R., Knapińska A., Włodarczyk A., “Modeling and Prediction of Daily Traffic Patterns—WASK and SIX Case Study“) accepted to Electronics 2021, 10(14), DOI information: https://doi.org/10.3390/electronics10141637 Datasets available: https://github.com/rgoscien/trafficmodeling

2021.06.30 Seminar: Aleksandra Knapińska “Long-term traffic prediction with ensemble learning on data streams”

2021.06.30 Seminar: Dr Róża Goścień “On the Efficient Flow Restoration in Spectrally-Spatially Flexible Optical Networks”

2021.06.12 Paper (Lechowicz P., Knapińska A., Goścień R., “Fragmentation-Aware Traffic Grooming with Lane Changes in Spectrally–Spatially Flexible Optical Networks“) accepted to Electronics 2021, 10(12), DOI information: https://doi.org/10.3390/electronics10121502

2021.06.11 Paper (Goścień R., “On the Efficient Flow Restoration in Spectrally-Spatially Flexible Optical Networks“) accepted to Electronics 2021, 10(12), DOI information: https://doi.org/10.3390/electronics10121468

2021.03.31 Seminar: Aleksandra Knapińska “Multilayer Application-Aware Networks - Literature Review”

2021.03.31 Seminar: Daniel Szostak “Survey of Machine Learning approaches for Network Traffic Forecasting”

2021.03.17 Paper (Knapińska A., Lechowicz P., Walkowiak K., “Machine-Learning Based Prediction of Multiple Types of Network Traffic“) accepted to the International Conference on Computational Science ICCS 2021 (link https://www.iccs-meeting.org/iccs2021/) held June 16-18, 2021 in Kraków, Poland. Datasets available: https://zasobynauki.pl/zasoby/internet-traffic-data-for-different-frame-size-ranges,56566/

2021.02.03 Seminar: Aleksandra Knapińska “Machine-Learning Based Prediction of Multiple Types of Network Traffic”

2021.02.03 Seminar: Damian Mroziński “Optimization of conergent packet switched 5G transport networks with latency-sensitive traffic flows”

2021.02.03 Seminar: Dominik Dulas “AI-assisted dimensioning methods for Network Slicing in Next Generation Mobile Networks”

2020.12.02 Seminar: Dr Piotr Lechowicz “Regression-based fragmentation metrics in spectrally-spatially flexible optical networks”

2020.12.02 Seminar: Prof. Miroslaw Klinkowski (National Institute of Telecommunications, Warsaw) “Optimization of 5G conergent transport networks with packet switching and time sensitive traffic”

2020.10.07 Seminar: Prof. Krzysztof Walkowiak “Advanced methods for optimization of multilayer application-aware networks – Project kick-off meeting”