Optimal RWA for Static Traffic in Transmission-Impaired Wavelength-Routed Networks

Physical-layer degradations can severely limit the capacity of all-optical wavelength-routed networks, and powerful routing and wavelength assignment (RWA) algorithms are needed to minimize their effect. An optimal RWA technique is presented that minimizes the number of wavelengths needed to serve a set of static call provisioning requests. The optimal solution is compared to classical suboptimal algorithms and results show that route selection is more critical than wavelength assignment if multiple paths are available. Physical impairments become less significant in mesh networks than in tandem networks.