Routing, Spectrum, Core and Modulation Level Assignment Algorithm for Protected SDM Optical Networks

The introduction of space division multiplexing (SDM) is a promising solution to cope with the ever increasing Internet traffic. The introduction of SDM brings new challenges for protecting the network since a lightpath can span multiple cores. In this paper, we propose a novel routing, modulation level and spectrum assignment (RMLSA) algorithm to dynamically generate primary and backup paths using a shared backup scheme and adaptive modulation in elastic optical networks employing multi-core fibers and space division multiplexing. The proposed algorithm is evaluated and its performance compared to the performance of other algorithms in the literature. Results indicate that 100% protection for single failures is achieved by our algorithm and yet it produces better performance when compared to the performance of existing algorithms.