Efficient dynamic traffic grooming in service-differentiated WDM mesh networks

In this paper, we address the issue of traffic grooming in arbitrary WDM mesh networks. We present a novel groomer architecture wherein a combination of grooming at two different granularities is utilized to make the setup cost-effective without compromising on efficiency. We put forward an efficient algorithm for dynamic routing and wavelength assignment of sub-wavelength connections. We also propose a means of rerouting connections dynamically to facilitate increase in the average call acceptance ratio. Rerouting in the dynamic scenario has never been considered before. The connections, which may have arbitrary bandwidth requirements, are considered to be service-differentiated based on the need for protection. We show the advantage of employing segmented backup in place of end-to-end backup as well as the benefits of the rerouting mechanism we propose through extensive simulation results. (C) 2004 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.