Load balancing in all-optical overlaid-star TDM networks

Load balancing is an effective solution to relieving network congestion and achieving good network performance. This paper investigates routing strategies for load balancing in all-optical overlaid-star TDM networks. A random routing strategy and a least-congested-path routing strategy are first presented, based on which a weighted-least-congested-path routing strategy is then proposed. The proposed strategy takes into account both load balancing and end-to-end delay in path selection, and thus can achieve better delay performance while maintaining the same blocking performance under low traffic load as compared with the other strategies. The performance of the routing strategies is evaluated through simulation results.