Multicasting versus anycasting: How to efficiently deliver content in elastic optical networks

Elastic optical network (EON) is a technology that supports high bit-rate traffic demands in more efficient way comparing to traditional wavelength division multiplexing (WDM) optical networks. To facilitate the process of large content delivery in EONs, multicasting and anycasting transmission techniques can be applied instead of a simple unicast traffic. In this paper, we focus on a problem related to joint optimization of unicast, anycast, and multicast traffic. We propose several heuristic algorithms including greedy methods and metaheuristics such as Tabu Search and Simulated Annealing. Moreover, we perform experiments on representative topologies with realistic EON assumptions to examine which method, i.e., multicasting versus anycasting provides the best performance in the context of large content delivery in EONs.