Off-line lightpath routing in WDM networks with different wavelength converter configurations

We consider the off-line routing of lightpaths in WDM networks where the nodes individually provide either full, partial or no wavelength conversion. We develop a flexible network model and use it to find the lightpaths in a national-scale network for different demand patterns by a flow-based approach. Our results indicate that due to low network utilization no or few converters in the network can yield the same performance as full wavelength conversion in all the nodes.