Differentiated reliability (DiR) in WDM rings without wavelength converters

The concept of Differentiated Reliability (DiR) was recently introduced by the authors to provide multiple reliability degrees (or classes) at the same network layer using a common protection mechanism, e.g., path switching. According to the DiR concept, each connection at the layer under consideration is guaranteed a minimum reliability degree, defined as the Maximum Failure Probability allowed for that connection. The reliability degree chosen for a given connection is thus determined by the application requirements, and not by the actual network topology, design constraints, robustness of the network components, and span of the connection. In the paper the DiR concept is applied to designing the Wavelength Division Multiplexing (WDM) layer of a ring network in which wavelength conversion is not available. To solve the routing and wavelength assignment problem at the WDM layer an efficient algorithm is proposed that resorts to reusable protection wavelengths while guaranteeing the required reliability degree of each connection. Lower bounds on the network bandwidth required by two approaches — respectively based on non-reusable and reusable protection wavelengths — reveal interesting properties of the DiR concept and the proposed algorithm.