Routing and wavelength assignment with power considerations in optical networks

Previous studies have solved many variations of the routing and wavelength assignment (RWA) problem in optical networks under the assumption of perfect conditions regarding the power of a signal. In this paper, we investigate the RWA problem while allowing for degradation of routed signals by optical components. The problem is formulated as a mixed-integer non-linear program. We propose a two-phase approach. In the first phase, we solve the pure RWA problem using fixed routes for every connection. In the second phase, power assignment is accomplished by either using a heuristic or using a genetic algorithm. This paper demonstrates that: (i) connections do interact affecting the power of each other, and (ii) global search meta-heuristics provide better solutions.