On-line multicast routing with QoS constraints in WDM networks with no wavelength converters

Abstract

The rapid growth of multicast applications initiated the need to realise multicasting in Wavelength Division Multiplexing (WDM) networks in an efficient and cost-effective way. However, most of the applications need to support dynamic multicast sessions wherein the membership of the multicast group changes with time as nodes join or leave the session dynamically. In addition, with the advancements in the multimedia and other real-time group applications, the construction of multicast trees satisfying Quality of Service (QoS) requirements of the member nodes is becoming a problem of prime importance. In this paper, we deal with on-line QoS multicast routing in WDM networks. As members leave the sessions, it will be mandatory to rearrange the trees in order to save costs, at the same time accounting for the disruption caused to the ongoing transmissions because of the rearrangement. We try to effectively decrease the disruption by considering only certain portions of the multicast tree and limiting the rearrangement to only those portions. A region's usefulness to the overall tree is judged by a novel concept of Cost-to-Service Ratio (CSR) and a region is selected for rearrangement based on its CSR value. Extensive simulation results reveal that rearrangements based on CSR can reduce the disruption to the member nodes by 20-85% compared to rearrangements based on the best known metric (Quality Factor) in the literature, for the same cost performance. We also demonstrate the cost-effectiveness of the trees generated by our on-line algorithm compared to that of static algorithm.