Optimal wavelength assignment algorithms for permutation traffic in multi-fiber WDM ring networks

Permutation traffic occurs in a number of networking applications. In this paper, the problem of wavelength assignment for permutation traffic in multi-fiber WDM rings with and without wavelength conversion is considered. We focus on a special class of permutation traffic and analyze the bounds on the number of wavelengths required to establish the connections. Lower bounds and optimal algorithms are presented for all the cases. The results indicate that a small number of fibers is sufficient to provide most of the benefits that wavelength conversion provides for this class of permutation traffic.