Designing operational WDM networks

Network design tools are routinely used in practice to design optical networks that can carry a given set of traffic demands at the least cost The criteria used to route demands during design are often different from those used while routing in the operational network. As a result, the routes computed may be different during design and operations, leading to over- or under- utilization of portions of the network and even failure to route some demands. In this paper, we propose a general solution for this problem, which handles any combination of routing criteria. It works by enhancing the designed network with minimal additional capacity such that it can carry the demands during operations. We also provide experimental results evaluating the performance of this technique and the operational effectiveness of various design algorithms.