All-optical multipoint-to-point routing in WDM mesh networks

In this article, the routing and wavelength assignment (RWA) problem for supporting multipoint-to-point communications in all-optical WDM mesh networks is investigated. Two efficient algorithms, namely reverse shortest path tree routing (RSPT) and k-bounded edge disjoint path routing (EDPR), are proposed. We proved that the problem of minimizing the total cost while establishing a multipoint-to-point session can be solved in polynomial time of O(|V|log|V| + |V| + |E|) by the RSPT algorithm, where |V| and |E| denote the number of nodes and the number of edges in the network, respectively. Nevertheless, the solution provided by the EDPR algorithm produces a significant reduction in the maximum number of wavelengths required per link (i.e., the link stress) for a multipoint-to-point session compared to RSPT algorithm. EDPR algorithm can also approximate to the optimal total cost with a ratio of k. Simulations are done to assess these two algorithms. Numerical results demonstrate their efficiencies in supporting multipoint-to-point communications in all-optical WDM networks.