Average-Case Performance Evaluation of Online Algorithms for Routing and Wavelength Assignment in WDM Optical Networks

We investigate the problem of online routing and wavelength assignment and the related throughput maximization problem in wavelength division multiplexing optical networks. It is pointed out that these problems are highly inapproximable. We evaluate the average-case performance of several online algorithms, which have no knowledge of future arriving connection requests when processing the current connection request. Our experimental results on a wide range of optical networks demonstrate that the average-case performance of these algorithms is very close to optimal.