A tabu search heuristic for the routing and wavelength assignment problem in multigranular optical networks

Abstract

This paper proposes a tabu search heuristic for solving the routing and wavelength assignment problem in multigranular optical networks, considering the wavelength-continuity constraint and a set of connections to satisfy. For a number of fibers per link, a number of wavebands per fiber, and a number of wavelengths per waveband, this algorithm attempts to minimize the total number of ports used in the network by efficiently grouping lightpaths into bands and fibers, and switching the whole bands and fibers. The algorithm has been implemented and tested on the NSFNET network, and comparisons have been made with the Balanced Path Routing and Heavy Traffic First (BPHT) algorithm in terms of number of ports. Generally, the results obtained with our tabu search heuristic are better than those provided by this algorithm.