Improved lightpath (wavelength) routing in large WDM networks

We address the problem of efficient circuit switching in wide area networks. The solution provided is based on finding optimal routes for lightpaths and semilightpaths. A lightpath is a fully optical transmission path, while a semilightpath is a transmission path constructed by chaining several lightpaths together, using wavelength conversion at their junctions. The problem thus is to find an optimal lightpath/semilightpath in the network in terms of the cost of wavelength conversion and the cost of using the wavelengths on links. We first present fast, efficient algorithms both for the general problem and for a natural restricted version. The new algorithms outperform earlier work, providing time improvements amounting to an almost linear time factor in most cases. Also, all our algorithms can be implemented on the network in a distributed way.