Reactive Search for Traffic Grooming in WDM Networks

In this paper the Reactive Local Search (RLS) heuristic is proposed for the problem of minimizing the number of expensive Add-Drop multiplexers in a SONET or SDH optical network ring, while respecting the constraints given by the overall number of fibers and the number of wavelengths that can carry separate information on a fiber. RLS complements local search with a history-sensitive feedback loop that tunes the prohibition parameter to the local characteristics of a specific instance. Simulation results are reported to highlight the improvement in ADM cost when RLS is compared with greedy algorithms used in the recent literature.