Software-Defined Networking (SDN) is a game-changing new paradigm in telecommunications.Using its centralized control, SDN is able to reconfigure networks on time-scales of milliseconds instead of seconds or minutes, opening up possibilities for traffic engineering undreamed-of before. This thesis studies the question "To which extent does application-layer knowledge help traffic engineering to increase network performance?". To this end, it considers the two network types circuit-switched networks and packet-switched networks. Both types have different properties and feature different possibilities for reconfiguration. This is why this thesis approaches both of them individually, in very different ways. Prior to communication in a circuit-switched network, a dedicated circuit between both communication partners has to be established. This circuit is used exclusively, ensuring certain properties such as usable data rate or latency. In contrast, in the packet-switched domain, a shared medium is used for communication. Data is transferred using (small) data packets which are routed independently of each other over the shared network. As a showcase for circuit-switched networks, this thesis considers optical wide area networks (WAN) and for packet-switched networks data-center (DC) networks are examined. WANs are covering large areas such as entire countries. They usually employ optical wavelength division multiplexing (WDM) technology providing high data rates to interconnect various smaller, diverse networks.DC networks, on the other hand, are deployed on a much smaller spatial area interconnecting servers owned by one operator. To include application-layer knowledge into the optimization of WDM networks, first a new type ofRouting and Wavelength Assignment (RWA) algorithm is proposed. The algorithm provides an interface between the management layer of a WDM network and the applications running on top of it... |