Extended adaptive search for routing multi-granular path allocation in optical networks

The ever increase in the Internet traffic resulted in an increase in the number of wavelengths per fibre in WDM networks. Consequently, the required number of optical ports increases which accordingly increases the cost of the optical cross connect and the complexity of the routing and wavelength assignment algorithms. As a result, the multi-granular switching concept was introduced to reduce the cost of the optical cross connect and simplify the complexity of its management algorithms. This paper proposes a new heuristic algorithm, based on the Multi-Granular traffic concept, to set up static multi-granular paths in optical networks. The objective of the new algorithm is to minimize the total weighted port count that is required to set up a given set of static multi-granular traffic demands on a given network. The new algorithm is tested and its performance is compared with other previously proposed algorithms.