Efficient Power-Aware Network Provisioning for All-Optical Multicasting in WDM Mesh Networks

Optimal network provisioning is the process of equipping the network with the devices and resources needed to support all traffic demands while minimizing the network cost. Optical amplifiers (OAs) are one of those devices that contribute significantly to the network cost, especially in wide area networks. We propose a heuristic approach for placing the minimum number of OAs in the network. The solution is designed for all-optical multicasting and is based on dividing the problem into smaller subproblems. While solving them separately, the heuristic takes the interdependency between these subproblems into consideration. Therefore, efficient and accurate solutions can be obtained which is shown by the numerical results.