Resource-efficient path-protection schemes and online selection of routes in reliable WDM networks

The optimal choice of routing and wavelength assignment (RWA) for the working and protection path–pair of the newly generated demand request is often a complex problem in reliable wavelength-division-multiplexed (WDM) networks subject to dynamic traffic. The challenge is twofold: how to provide the required reliability level without over-reserving network resources and how to find a good solution of the RWA problem under constrained computational time. Two important contributions are made. First, the shared path Protection (SPP) switching scheme is generalized to guarantee the required (differentiated) level of reliability to all arriving demands, while, at the same time, ensuring that they contain the required amount of reserved network resources. This generalization is referred to as SPP-DiR. Second, an approach for choosing the working and protection path–pair routing for the arriving demand is proposed. The approach is based on a matrix of preselected path–pairs: the disjoint path–pair matrix (DPM). Results show that, when the SPP-DiR scheme is applied, a small reduction in demand reliability corresponds to a significant reduction of the required network resources, when compared with the conventional SPP. In turn, the demand blocking probability may be reduced more than one order of magnitude. It is also shown that the DPM approach is suitable for obtaining satisfactory RWA solutions in both SPP-DiR and conventional SPP networks. The use of the DPM is most suited when the time for solving the RWA problem is constrained, e.g., when demand requests must be served swiftly. © 2004 Optical Society of America