Optimization of loss-balanced multicast in all-optical WDM networks

In wavelength-division multiplexing (WDM) optical networks, multicast is implemented by constructing a light-forest, which is a set of light-trees with each light-tree rooted from the multicast source and terminated at a partition subset of the destination nodes. Multicast routing scenario has considerable impact on the quality of optical signal received at each destination. To guarantee the fairness of signal quality at different destinations in a multicast session, it is desirable to construct a loss-balanced light-forest to deliver the multicast traffic. A loss-balanced light-forest is composed of a set of light-trees bounded in size (number of destinations per multicast tree), in size variation (difference in the number of destinations among different multicast trees), and in dimension (maximum source-to-destination distance on each multicast tree). This paper investigates the multicast routing and wavelength assignment (MC-RWA) problem under the loss-balance constraint. The problem is formulated as an optimization model using integer linear programming (ILP). Numerical solutions to the optimization model can supply useful performance benchmarks for loss-balance-constrained optical multicast in WDM networks. This work was supported by the NSF under Grant OCI-0225642 and by the U.S. DoE under Grant DE-FG02–03ER25566.