Allocation of wavelength convertible nodes and routing in all-optical networks

It is true that in all-optical networks, network performance can be improved by wavelength conversion. However, the switching node with wavelength conversion capability is still costly, and the number of such nodes should be limited in the network. In this paper, a performance optimization problem is treated in all-optical networks. We propose a heuristic algorithm to minimize an overall blocking probability by properly allocating a limited number of nodes with wavelength conversion capability. The routing streategy is also considered suitable to the case where the number of wavelength convertible nodes are limited. We validate the minimization level of our heuristic algorithm through numerical examples, and show that our algorithm can properly allocate nodes with conversion for performance optimizaition.