Optical multicast using a mixed waveband forwarding in MPL(ambda)S network

Optical multicast in a MPL(ambda)S network has not yet to be defined. An MPL(ambda)S network consists of lambda switching devices such as OXC. In this paper, optical multicast using the mixed waveband forwarding within a MPL(ambda)S network is discussed on both dense-mode and sparse-mode. And the OXC capable waveband switching is suggested. Unlike unicast routing, dense-mode multicast routing trees are established in a traffic-driven manner and it is not possible to topologically aggregate such trees, which are rooted at different sources. In sparse-mode multicast, source-specific trees may coexist with a core/shared trees, and it is not possible to assign a common wavelength label to traffic from different sources on a branch of the shared tree. This paper suggests a mixed waveband-forwarding scheme for supporting all two types of multicast (shared tree, source tree) routing trees in a MPL(ambda)S network.