A Simple Approach for Optimal Allocation of Wavelength Converters in WDM Optical Networks

In this article, a simple but effective approach for optimal allocation of wavelength converters in WDM optical networks is proposed. Since wavelength converters are expensive, it is desirable if each node in WDM optical networks can use minimum number of wavelength converters to achieve near-ideal performance. For this purpose, a simple sorting mechanism is introduced. The previous concept is re-defined in such a way that a simple sorting algorithm can solve it. The distinguished feature of the proposed approach is that it handles conflicting circumstances intuitively rather than arbitrarily during allocation of wavelength converters to improve the overall blocking-performance of WDM optical networks. Comparison with previous approach establishes the effectiveness of the proposed approach to solve the problem of Optimal Wavelength Converters Allocation (OWCA) in practical WDM optical networks.