Multiwavelength Optical Networks With Limited Wavelength Conversion - INFOCOM '97. Sixteenth Annual Joint Conference of the IEEE Computer and Communications Societies.

This paper proposes optical wavelength division multiplexed (WDM) networks with limited wavelength conversion that can eficiently support lightpaths (connections) between nodes. Each lightpath follows a route in the network and must be assigned a channel along each link in its route. The load A , , , of a set of lightpath requests is the maximum over al l links of the number of lightpaths that use the link. At least A , , , wavelengths will be needed t o assign channels to the lightpaths. If the network has full wavelength conversion capabilities then A , , , wavelengths are suficient to perform the channel assignment. We propose ring networks with fixed wavelength conversion capability within the nodes that can support al l lightpath request sets with load A, at most W 1, where W is the number of wavelengths in each link. We also propose ring networks with selective pairwise wavelength conversion capability within the nodes that can support all lightpath request sets with load A , , , at most W . We also propose a star network with fixed wavelength conversion capability at its hub node that can support all lightpath request sets with load A , , , at most W . We extend this result to tree networks and networks with arbitrary topologies. These results show that significant improvements in trafic-carrying cupacity can be obtained in WDM networks b y providing very limited wavelength conversion capability within the network.