Minimisation of end‐to‐end delay in reconfigurable WDM networks using genetic algorithms

Abstract

AbstractA new genetic algorithm (GA) is proposed to design logical topologies for wavelength‐routed optical networks (WRONs) with the objective of minimising the end‐to‐end delay. Two versions of the algorithm, called D‐GALD (Delay‐optimised Genetic Algorithm for Logical topology Design), have been developed. The first one minimises the average end‐to‐end delay of the packets transported by the network, while the second one minimises the average delay of the most delayed traffic flow. By means of a simulation study, we show that the logical topologies designed by D‐GALD support more than 50 per cent higher traffic load—without causing network instability—than those ones designed by other heuristics. Moreover, the utilisation of D‐GALD leads to reductions of up to 15 per cent in the average end‐to‐end delay and around 30 per cent in the average end‐to‐end delay of the most delayed traffic flow. Copyright © 2008 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.