Wavelength requirements and routing for multicast connections in lightpath and light-tree models of WDM networks with limited drops

The wavelength requirements of a multicast connection in WDM networks are studied. The network model is an all-optical network, in which a message can be dropped (or split) only at a limited number of destination nodes along a lightpath or a light-tree, due to the power loss of dropping optical signals. The upper and lower bounds of wavelength requirements for establishing a multicast connection in various topologies of networks are presented. The optimal routing and wavelength assignment algorithms for multicast connections to achieve the minimal number of wavelengths are also described