Request-specific routing in WDM grooming networks

Sub-wavelength traffic grooming in optical networks has gained significant importance in recent years due to the prevailing fractional wavelength traffic requirement of end-users. Dynamic routing schemes improve the performance of WDM grooming networks compared to static routing as they can adapt to changes in the network state. In this paper, the significance of dynamic routing of fractional wavelength traffic based on request characteristics is illustrated. We propose a request-specific routing scheme, called Available Shortest Path Routing, and study its performance. The results are compared against other routing schemes that do not use request characteristics in selecting a path. It is shown that request-specific routing can improve network performance with respect to utilization and fairness metrics.