Routing of Multicast Audio/Video Streams in Reconfigurable WDM



Ciro A. Noronha
Optivision, Inc.
3450 Hillview Ave.
Palo Alto, CA 94304
Email: ciro_AT_optivision.com

Fouad A. Tobagi
Stanford University
Electrical Engineering Dept.
Gates Bldg 3a-339
Stanford, CA 94305
Email: tobagi_AT_bodega.stanford.edu



Abstract
Due to its low attenuation, fiber has become the medium of choice for point-to-point links. Using Wavelength-Division Multiplexing (WDM), many independent channels can be created in the same fiber. A network node equipped with a tunable optical transmitter can select any of these channels for sending data. An optical interconnection combines the signal from the various transmitters in the network, and makes it available to the optical receivers, which may also be tunable. By properly tuning transmitters and/or receivers, point-to-point links can be dynamically created and destroyed. Therefore, in a WDM network, the routing algorithm has an additional degree of freedom compared to traditional networks: it can modify the network topology to create the routes. In this paper, we consider the problem of routing multicast audio/video streams in WDM networks and propose heuristic algorithms to solve it. The performance of these heuristics is evaluated in a number of scenarios, with a realistic traffic model, and from the evaluation we derive guidelines for usage of the proposed algorithms.

Keywords: WDM, multicast, optical networks, routing

JNSM: Vol. 4, No. 2, 1996 Routing of Multicast Audio/Video Streams in Reconfigurable WDM [Vol. 4, No. 2, 1996]



NOTE: only abstract of paper available on-line

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