Q-Factor-Based Constraint Routing Improves Performance in Optical Networks

by Ioannis Tomkos & Anna Tzanakaki SPIE Newsroom, accessed 13 Jun 2006 In communication networks, routing involves the identification of a path between the source and destination nodes for each connection request. Traditional routing approaches find a path that minimizes a certain cost parameter, such as the length of the connection. Most of the reported routing and wavelength assignment algorithms assume that once an available path and wavelength have been identified, the connection is feasible. This may not be true in transparent optical networks using wavelength division multiplexing, where the optical signal experiences and accumulates the effects of physical impairments associated with the transmission line and optical switching nodes. In some cases, this results in unacceptable signal quality. Read more