An Integer-Programming Approach to the Bicriteria Multicasting Problem in Optical Networks

We consider the problem of designing quality-of-service (QoS)-constrained routes for a set of multicast groups in an all-optical network. We present an integer goal programming formulation with the objectives of minimizing the cost of the multicast solution and minimizing the maximum link load of the network. Based on the structural properties of the problem, we develop a variable-fixing heuristic which is easy to implement, requires a modest amount of CPU time, and provides high-quality solutions. An extensive computational study is presented to justify our claims