LIGHT TREE

A SEMINAR REPORT

Submitted By

SUJIT KUMAR

In partial fulfillment of the award of the degree

of

BACHELOR OF TECHNOLOGY

IN
COMPUTER SCIENCE AND ENGINEERING

SCHOOL OF ENGINEERING

COCHIN UNIVERSITY OF SCIENCE & TECHNOLOGY

KOCHI-682022

SEPTEMBER 2008
 DIVISION OF COMPUTER SCIENCE AND
ENGINEERING
SCHOOL OF ENGINEERING
COCHIN UNIVERSITY OF SCIENCE & TECHNOLOGY,
COCHIN-682022

Certificate

Certified that this is a bonafide record of the Seminar Entitled

“Light Tree”
Done by the following Student
Sujit Kumar
Of the VIIth semester, Computer Science and Engineering in the year 2008 in
partial fulfillment of the requirements to the award of Degree Of Bachelor Of
Technology in Computer Science and Engineering of Cochin University of Science
and Technology.

Ms. Sheena S. Dr. David Peter

Seminar Guide Head of Department

Date:
 ACKNOWLEDGEMENT

At the outset, I thank the Lord Almighty for the grace, strength
and hope to make my endeavor a success.

I also express my gratitude to Dr. David Peter, Head of the

Department and my Seminar Guide for providing me with adequate
facilities, ways and means by which I was able to complete this seminar. I
express my sincere gratitude to him for his constant support and valuable
suggestions without which the successful completion of this seminar would
not have been possible.

I thank Ms. Sheena S, my seminar guide for her boundless

cooperation and helps extended for this seminar. I express my immense
pleasure and thankfulness to all the teachers and staff of the Department of
Computer Science and Engineering, CUSAT for their cooperation and
support.

Last but not the least, I thank all others, and especially my
classmates and my family members who in one way or another helped me in
the successful completion of this work.

Sujit Kumar
 ABSTRACT

The concept of light tree is introduced in a wavelength routed optical network

which employs wavelength -division multiplexing (WDM).

A light tree is a point to point multipoint all optical channel, which may span
multiple fiber links. Hence, a light tree enables single-hop communication between
a source node and a set of destination nodes. Thus, a light tree based virtual
topology can significantly reduce the hop distance, thereby increasing the network
throughput.

A light path is an all-optical channel, which may be used to carry circuit

switched traffic, and it may span multiple fiber links. Assigning a particular
wavelength to it sets these up. We refer light tree as a point to multi point
extension of light path.

In the near future, WANs will be based on WDM optical networks. So far,
all architectures that have been proposed for WDM WANs have only considered
the problem of providing unicast services. In addition to unicast services future
WDM WANs need to provide multicast and broadcast services. A novel WDM
WAN architecture based on light trees that are capable of supporting broadcasting
and multicasting over a wide-area network by employing a minimum number of
opto-electronic devices was discussed. Such WDMWAN can provide a very high
bandwidth optical layer, which efficiently routes unicast, broadcast and multicast
packet-switch traffic.
 TABLE OF CONTENTS

Chapter No. Title Page No.

List of Tables………………………………………………I
List of Figures…………………………………………….II

1 Introduction..........................................................................1
1.1 Overview…….........................................................1
1.2 Classification of physical topology networks..........1
1.3 Types of WDM……………………………………4
1.4 Comparisons between CWDM & DWDM………..4

2 Light Path……………….....................................................5
2.1 Definition……………………................................5

3 Light Trees………………………………............................6
3.1 Definition……........................................................6
3.2 An Example......................................................…...7
3.3 Requirements...........................................................8

4 Architecture of wavelength-routed optical network……....10

4.1 Architecture View………………………………..10

5 Multicast Switch Architectures…………………………...12

5.1 An Example of Multicast Switch Architecture…...12
5.2 Formula Derivation………………………………13
6 An MWRS based on a splitter bank……………………...14
6.1 An Example of multicast-capable
Wavelength-routing switch……………………..15

7 MWRS based on a “drop and continue” switch………….16

7.1 Technique………………………………………...16

8 The Optical Layer………………………………………..17

8.1 Definition…………………………………………17
8.2 Features of Optical Layer………………………....17

9 Unicast, Broadcast & Multicast Traffic…………………19

9.1 Unicast Traffic……………………………………19
9.2 Broadcast Traffic………………………………….21
9.3 Multicast Traffic…………………………………..22
9.4 Combining Unicast & Multicast Traffic…………..23

10 Light Trees Problem Formulation………………………..25

10.1 Unicast Traffic
10.1.1 Formulation of optimization problem…….26
10.1.2 Optimization Criterion……………………26
10.2 Constraints………………………………………..27

11 Combining Light Tree With Lightpath…………………..28

12 Conclusion……………………………………………….30

13 References……………………………………………….31
 List of Tables

1 Comparisons between CWDM & DWDM…………………..4

2 Average packet hop distance for lightpath-based

& Light-Tree based virtual topologies………………………28

3 The number of Transceivers required by lightpath

based & light-tree based virtual topologies for different
traffic matrices………………………………………….........29

I
 List of Figures

No. NAME PAGE No.

1 Fiber Optic Transport using WDM...........................................................3

2 Architecture of a wavelength-routed optical network…………………...6
3 NSFNET backbone topology.....................................................................9
4 Linear Divider Counter.............................................................................12
5 A multi-cast capable wavelength – routing switch ……………………..14
6 Single Unicast Traffic…………………………………………………...20
7 Multiple-Stream Unicast Traffic………………………………………...21
8 Broadcast Traffic………………………………………………………...22
9 Multicast Traffic…………………………………………………………23
10 Combined Multicast and Unicast Traffic………………………………..24

II
 Light Tree

1. INTRODUCTION

1.1 Overview

Today, there is a general consensus that, in the near future, wide area networks (WAN)
(such as, a nation wide backbone network) will be based on Wavelength Division Multiplexed
(WDM) optical networks. One of the main advantages of a WDM WAN over other optical
technologies, such as, Time Division Multiplexed (TDM) optical networks, is that it allows us to
exploit the enormous bandwidth of an optical fiber (up to 50 terabits bits per second) with
requiring electronic devices, which operate at extremely high speeds.

The concept of light tree is introduced in a wavelength routed optical network, which
employs wavelength -division multiplexing (WDM).

1. 2 Classification of physical topology networks

Depending on the underlying physical topology networks can be classified into three
generations:

First Generation: these networks do not employ fiber optic technology; instead they employ
copper-based or microwave technology. E.g. Ethernet.

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Second Generation: these networks use optical fibers for data transmission but switching is
performed in electronic domain. E.g. FDDI.

Third Generation: in these networks both data transmission and switching is performed in
optical domain. E.g. WDM.

WDM wide area networks employ tunable lasers and filters at access nodes and
optical/electronic switches at routing nodes. An access node may transmit signals on different
wavelengths, which are coupled into the fiber using wavelength multiplexers. An optical signal
passing through an optical wavelength-routing switch (WRS) may be routed from an output
fiber without undergoing opto-electronic conversion.

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Traditional Digital Fiber Optic Transport

Single Pair of Fibers

Digital Transceiver Digital Transceiver

Single Pair of Fibers

Digital Transceiver Digital Transceiver

Single Pair of Fibers

Digital Transceiver Digital Transceiver

Single Pair of Fibers

Digital Transceiver Digital Transceiver

Digital Fiber Optic Transport using WDM

WDM MUX WDM MUX

Digital Transceiver Digital Transceiver

Digital Transceiver
Single Pair of Fibers Digital Transceiver

Digital Transceiver Digital Transceiver

Digital Transceiver Digital Transceiver

Figure 1.1: Fiber Optic Transport using WDM

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1. 3 Types of WDM

Two main types of WDM:

Coarse Wavelength Division Multiplexing (CWDM)

Dense Wavelength Division Multiplexing (DWDM)

1. 4 Comparisons between CWDM & DWDM

Feature CWDM DWDM

Wavelengths 8 – 16 40 – 80
per fiber

Wavelength 2500GHz (20nm) 100 GHz (0.8nm)

spacing

Wavelength Up to 2.5 Gbps Up to 10 Gbps

capacity

Aggregate 20 – 40 Gbps 100 – 1000 Gbps

fiber
capacity

Overall cost Low Medium

Applications Enterprise, metro-access Access, metro-core, regional

Table 1 : Comparisons between CWDM & DWDM

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2. LIGHT PATH

2. 1 Definition :

A light path is an all-optical channel, which may be used to carry circuit switched traffic, and it
may span multiple fiber links. Assigning a particular wavelength to it sets these up. In the
absence of wavelength converters, a light path would occupy the same wavelength continuity
constraint.

A light path can create logical (or virtual) neighbors out of nodes that may be
geographically far apart from each other. A light path carries not only the direct traffic between
the nodes it interconnects, but also the traffic from nodes upstream of the source to nodes
upstream of the destination. A major objective of light path communication is to reduce the
number of hops a packet has to traverse.

Under light path communication, the network employs an equal number of transmitters
and receivers because each light path operates on a point-to-point basis. However this
approach is not able to fully utilize all of the wavelengths on all of the fiber links in the network,
also it is not able to fully exploit all the switching capability of each WRS.

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3. LIGHT TREES

3.1 Definition:

Figure 3 .1: Architecture of a wavelength-routed optical network and its layered-graph

representation. A) Illustrated are: a light path on wavelength λ1 from node A to node C, and a
lightpath on wavelength λ2 from node A to node F; B) Layered-graph model with three
wavelength layers.

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Thus, incorporating an optical multicasting capability extends the light path concept.
Multicasting is the ability of an application at a node to send a single message to the
communication network and have it delivered to multiple recipients tat different locations. We

refer light tree as a point to multi point extension of light path. Today, many multicasting
applications exist, such as, teleconferencing, software/file distribution including file replication
on mirrored sites, distributed games, Inter net news distribution-mail mailing lists, etc., but the
implementation of these applications is not necessarily efficient because today’s WANs were
designed to support point-to-point (unicast) communication. In the future, as multicast
applications become more popular and bandwidth intensive, there emerges a pressing need to
provide multicasting support on WANs.

A light tree is a point to point multipoint all optical channel, which may span multiple
fiber links. Hence, a light tree enables single-hop communication between a source node and a
set of destination nodes. Thus, a light tree based virtual topology can significantly reduce the
hop distance, thereby increasing the network throughput.

3.2 An Example:

Figure 1a shows a light tree, which connects node UT to nodes TX, NE and IL. Thus, an
optical signal transmitted by node UT travels down the light tree till it reaches node CO, where
it is split by an optical splitter into two copies. One copy of the optical signal is routed to node
TX, where it is terminated at a receiver. The other copy is routed towards node NE, where it is
again split into two copies. At node NE, one copy of the optical signal is terminated at receiver,
while the other copy is routed towards node IL. Finally, a copy of the optical signal reaches

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node IL, where it is terminated at a receiver. Thus the virtual topology induced by this light tree
consists of three logical links.
Let us assume that the bit rate of each light path is normalized to one unit, and node UT
wants to send a certain amount of packet traffic to nodes TX, NE and IL. Let assume that we are
allowed only one free wavelength on the links UT-CO, CO-NE, NE-IL and CO-TX. Then, a light
path based solution would consist of the following four light paths:

From UT to CO

From CO to NE

From CO to TX

From NE to IL

Thus the light path based solution requires a switch at nodes CO and NE and a total of eight
transceivers (one transmitter and one receiver per light path). On the other hand, a light tree
based solution consists of a single light tree, which requires a total of four transceivers (one
transmitter at UT and one receiver per node at TX, NE, and IL) and does not utilize the
electronic switch at node CO or NE.

3.3 Requirements:

1. Multicast –capable wavelength routing switches (MWRS) at every node in the netwok.
2. More optical amplifiers in the network. This is because if we make n copies of an
optical signal by using one or more optical splitters, the signal power of at least one
copy will be less than or equal to 1/n times the original signal power; thus more

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amplifiers may be required to maintain the optical signal power above a certain
threshold so that the signal can be detected at their receivers.

Figure 3.2: a) NSFNET backbone topology(link labels corresponds to propogation delay);

b)Virtual link induced by the light-tree consisting of source UT and destination nodes TX,NE and
IL .

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4. Architecture of wavelength-routed optical

network

A WDM control network may require efficient delivery of broadcast traffic. Consider a
wavelength –routed optical network shown in figure3.2a, which may be modeled as a layered
graph, in which each layer represents a wavelength, and each physical fiber has a
corresponding link on each wavelength layer. Wavelength at 0 layer serves as the control
network. For illustration, a broadcast tree is shown as the control network.

4.1 Architecture View:

Now, the switching state of each wavelength-routing switch (WRS) is

managed by a controller. Controllers communicate with each other using a control network,
either in-band, out-of-band or in-fiber, out-of-band. In in-fiber, out-of-band signaling (which is
advocated for WDM WAN), a wavelength layer is dedicated for the control network. For
example, in the wavelength 0 may be used for the control network, and controllers may employ
multiple light trees for fast information dissemination among themselves.

Moreover, in the future, as multicast applications become more and more

popular and bandwidth-intensive, there emerges a pressing need to provide multicast support

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on WANs. Some multicast applications may have a large destination set, which mat be spread
over a wide geographical area; for example, a live telecast of a popular music concert is one
such application. A light tree based broadcast layer may provide an efficient transport
mechanism for such multicast applications.

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5. MULTICAST SWITCH ARCHITECTURES

This section examines various switch architectures which have multicast capability.

5.1 An Example of Multicast Switch Architecture

Figure 5: Linear Divider Counter

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Light Tree
Figure 5 shows a linear divider combiner with two input fibers (the Pis), two output
fibers (the P0s), two dividers and four control signals (the αjs). A larger LDC will have more than
two combiners and dividers. The LDC acts as a generalized optical switch with added functions
of multicasting and multiplexing.

5.2 Formula Derivation:

The values of α1, α2, α3, α4 (each can be varied between 0&1) control the proportion of
the input power that can be sent to the output links. Let Pi1 and Pi2 be the power on the input
links, and let P01 and P02 be the output powers. Then,

Po1= (1-α1) (1-α3) Pi1+ (1-α2) α3Pi2 and

Po2= α1 (1-α4) Pi1+α1α4Pi2

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6. An MWRS based on a splitter bank

Figure 6: A multi-cast capable wavelength – routing switch

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An optical splitter splits the input signal into multiple identical output signals. Since an
optical splitter is a passive device, the power from at least one output signal of an n-way optical
splitter is less than or equal to 1/n times the input power. To be detected, the optical signal power
needs to be more than a threshold, and hence an optical switch may require a large number of
optical amplifiers.

6.1 An Example of multicast-capable wavelength-routing switch

Figure 4 shows a 2*2 multicast-capable wavelength-routing switch (MWRS), which can support
four wavelengths on each fiber link. The information on each incoming link is first
demultiplexed into separate wavelengths, each carrying a different signal. Then the separate
signals, each on separate wavelengths, are switched by the optical switch (OSW). Signals that
do not need duplication are sent directly to ports corresponding to their output links, while
those signals that need to be duplicated are sent to a port connected to a splitter bank.

The splitter bank may be enhanced to provide optical signal amplification, wavelength
conversion and signal regeneration for multicast as well as unicast signals. For example, in figure
4 wavelengths is a unicast signal and is a multicast signal. The output of the splitter is connected
to a smaller optical switch, which routes the different copies of a signal to their respective output
links.

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7. MWRS based on a “drop and continue” switch

In a “drop and continue” switch, a light path can be terminated at a node and
simultaneously an identical copy of the light path can be allowed to continue to another node in
the network.

7.1 Technique:

By employing a “drop and continue” switch, we can construct a chain of nodes, which
are connected by a “drop and continue” light path. Thus, all nodes on the chain will receive
transmissions on a drop and continue light path where light is “dropped”. Note that, a “drop and
continue” light path is a special case of a light tree.

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8. THE OPTICAL LAYER

In general, the topology of a wavelength routing network may be an arbitrary mesh. It consists
of wavelength cross connect (WXS) nodes interconnected by fiber links. The network provides
light paths between pairs of network nodes. A light path is simply a high bandwidth pipe,
carrying data up to several gigabytes per second. It is realized by allocating a wavelength on
each link in the path between two nodes. Clearly we cannot assign the same wavelength to two
light paths on any given link.

Each link can support a certain number of wavelengths. The number of wavelengths that
can be supported depends on the component and transmission imposed limitations.

8.1 Definition:

The optical layer provides light paths to the higher layers. In addition to the pass through
capability provided by the optical layer, several other features, which include are:

8.2 Features of Optical Layer:

Transparency: Transparency refers to the fact that light paths can carry data at a variety of bit
rates, protocols, and so forth, and can, in effect, be made protocol insensitive. This enables the
optical layer to support a variety of higher layers concurrently.

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Wavelength reuse: Although the number of wavelengths available may be limited, the
network can still provide enormous capacities, since wavelengths can be spatially reused in the
network.

Reliability: the network can be configured such that in the event of failures, lightpaths can be
rerouted over alternative paths automatically. This provides a high degree of reliability in the
network.

Virtual topology: the virtual topology is the graph consisting of the network nodes, with an
edge between two nodes if there is a light path between them. The virtual topology thus refers
to the topology seen by the higher layers using the optical layer. To an ATM network residing
above the optical layer, the lightpaths look like links between TM switches. The set of lightpaths
can be tailored to meet the traffic requirements of the layers.

Circuit switching: The lightpaths provided by the optical layer can be set up and taken down
circuits in circuit switched networks, except that the rate at which the set up and take down
actions occur is likely to be much slower than, say, the rate for telephone networks with voice
circuits. No packet switching is provided within the optical layer.

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9. UNICAST, BROADCAST, AND MULTICAST

TRAFFIC

Understanding the differences between unicast, broadcast, and multicast network traffic
is central to understanding the benefits of IP/TV. Each of these types of transmission uses a
different type of destination IP address to accomplish its task, and can have a very different
level of impact on network bandwidth consumption.

9.1 UNICAST TRAFFIC

IP/TV on Demand use unicast traffic. Each user can request the program at a different
time, with the number of simultaneous users limited by the available bandwidth from the video
streams.
Unicast traffic is sent from a single source to a single destination IP address. The address
belongs to one (and only one) machine in the network.
FIGURE 9.1: shows a simple example of unicast traffic, with one data stream being
transmitted from a single source to a single destination.

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9.1: Example of Single Unicast Traffic

Figure 9.1

Unicast traffic is appropriate for many client/server applications, such as database

databas
applications, in which all the data resides on the server and the client runs an application to
retrieve, modifies, add, or delete data. For each transaction, there can be many bursts of unicast
traffic traveling back and forth between the client and the server.

However, in the case of an application such as multimedia presentations, there might be a

single source and several destinations. When a source machine wants to send the same data to
two destination addresses using the unicast address scheme, it must send two separate data
streams, thus doubling the amount of network bandwidth that is used.
Figure 9.2: shows an example of multiple
multiple-stream
stream unicast traffic, with a single source
sending separate data streams to multiple destinations.

Because the sourcee must replicate the entire data stream for each intended destination,
this can be a very inefficient use of network bandwidth

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Figure 9.2:: Example of Multiple-Stream Unicast Traffic

9.2 BROADCAST TRAFFIC

Broadcast traffic uses a special IP address to send a single stream of data to all of the
machines on the local network. A broadcast address typically ends in 255 (for example,
192.0.2.255) or has 255 in all four fields (255.255.255.255).
Note, however, that every machine receives the data stream, whether the user wants it or
not. For this reason, broadcast transmissions are usually limited to network level services such as
address resolution.
Because the destination machine has no choice about whether to receive the data, it is not
practical to use broadcast transmissions for applications such as streaming video.
.

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Figure 99.3 : Example of Broadcast Traffic

9.3 MULTICAST TRAFFIC

IP/TV scheduled programs use multicast transmissions which can reach unlimited
numbers of viewers simultaneously without overloading the network.

Multicast transmissions use a special class of destination IP addresses (the addresses in

the range 224.0.0.0 through 239.255.255.255). Multicast addresses are Class D addresses. Unlike
unicast addresses, these multicast aaddresses
ddresses are not assigned to individual machines on the
network. Instead, when a data stream is sent to one of these addresses, potential recipients of the
data can decide whether or not to receive the data. If the user wants the data, the user's machine
receives
eceives the data stream; if not, the user's machine ignores it.
For an application such as IP/TV, this means that a source server can transmit a single
data stream that is received by many destinations without overloading the Network by replicating
the dataa stream for each destination. Unlike the broadcast case, the user can choose whether to

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receive the data.

Figure 9.4: Example of Multicast Traffic

IP/TV uses multicast addressing to deliver multimedia content to the user without
overburdening the network with unnecessary data streams.

Note, however, that multicast transmissions require the routers in the network to be
multicast-enabled.

9.4 Combining Unicast and Multicast Traffic

If the routers in a network are not capable of handling multicast ttraffic,

raffic, IP/TV can use
unicast transmissions to send the multimedia content across the nonmulticast-enabled
nonmulticast router.

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A server on the other side of the router can then use multicast transmission to deliver the
content to its local users.

Figure 9.5: shows an example in which both multicast and unicast transmissions are
used to deliver IP/TV multimedia content.

Figure 9.5: Example of Combined Multicast and Unicast Traffic

Note, however, that each time a data stream is replicated; it adds to network traffic loads.
Assume that a single data stream requires 1.15 Mbps per second of network bandwidth (which is
typical for MPEG video), and the server sends one multicast data stream and seven unicast data
streams (the maximum number perm
permitted
itted by IP/TV). In this case, the total network bandwidth
consumed would be 9.2 Mbps, which is enough to severely overload the average 10BaseT
Ethernet network.

The use of combined multicast and unicast transmissions to deliver IP/TV content is
called Small Casting.

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10. Light trees: problem formulations

The problem of embedding a desired virtual topology on a given physical topology (fiber
network) is formally stated below. Here, we state the problem of unicast traffic. We are given
the following inputs to the problem:

• A physical topology Gp = (V, Ep) consisting of a weighted undirected graph,

where V is the set of network nodes, and Ep is the set of links connecting nodes.
Undirected means that each link in the physical topology is bi-directional. Nodes
correspond to network nodes (packet switches), and links correspond to the fibers
between nodes; since links are undirected, each link may consist of two channels
or fibers multiplexed (using any suitable mechanism) on the same buffer. Links
are assigned weights, which may correspond to physical distances between nodes.
A network node i is assumed to be equipped with a Dp (i) x Dp (i) WRS, where
Dp (i), the physical degree of node i, equals the number physical fiber links
emanating out of node i.

• The number of wavelength channels carried by each fiber =W.

• An NxN traffic matrix, where N is the number of network nodes and the (i, j) th
element is the average rate of traffic flow from node i to node j.

• The number of wavelength tunable lasers (Ti) and wavelength tunable filters (Ri)
at each node.

Our goal is to determine the following:

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A virtual topology Gp= (V, Ep) as another graph the out-degree of a node is the number
of transmitters at the node the nodes of the virtual topology. In the virtual topology correspond
to the nodes in the virtual topology, a link between nodes i, and j corresponds to a light tree
rooted at node i with node j as one of the leaves on the light Tree.

10.1 Unicast traffic:

10.1.1 Formulation of the optimization problem

The problem of finding an optimum light path based virtual topology is formulated as an
optimization problem, using principles of multi commodity flow for routing of light trees on the
physical topology and for routing of packets on the virtual topology.

10.1.2 Optimization criterion

Minimize one of the two objective functions:

• Average packet hop distance

• Total number of transceivers required in the network

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10.2 Constraints:

We divide the problems constraints into three categories as follows:

Constraints arising from limited number of transceivers per node.

Constraints arising from limited number of wavelengths.

Constraints arising from the limited bandwidth of light tree.

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11. Comparing light tree with light path

Transceivers Wavelengths
4 6 8
4 1.59 1.58 1.58
Lightpath Solution
5 1.48 1.38 1.38
6 1.42 1.32 1.30
Transceivers Wavelengths
4 6 8
4 1.23 1.13 1.08
Light-Tree Solution
5 1.21 1.12 1.07
6 1.19 1.09 1.07

Table 2: Average packet hop distance for lightpath-based & Light-Tree based virtual

topologies.

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Traffic Matrix Virtual Topology

LightPath Light-Tree

Random 104 102

Broadcast to 70 54
Neighbors

Table 3: The number of Transceivers required by lightpath based & light-tree based virtual
topologies for different traffic matrices.

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12. CONCLUSION

Recently, there has been a lot of interest in WDM based fiber optic networks. In fact,
there is a general consensus that, in the near future, WANs will be based on WDM optical
networks. So far, all architectures that have been proposed for WDM WANs have only
considered the problem of providing unicast services. In addition to unicast services future
WDM WANs need to provide multicast and broadcast services. A novel WDM WAN
architecture based on light trees that are capable of supporting broadcasting and multicasting
over a wide-area network by employing a minimum number of opto-electronic devices was
discussed. Such WDMWAN can provide a very high bandwidth optical layer, which efficiently
routes unicast, broadcast and multicast packet-switch traffic.

Each node in the WDM WAN consists of a multicast-capable wavelength routing switch
(WRS), an “off –the-shelf” electronic packet switch, and a set of opto electronic converters. The
problem of finding an optimum set of light-trees was formulated as a mixed integer linear
problem. Preliminary results show that if we employ a set of light trees, then significant savings
can be achieved in terms of the number of opto electronic devices that are required in the
network.

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13. REFERENCES

1. Laxman H. Sahasrabudhe and Biswanth mikhergee, Light trees : Optical Multicasting For
Improved Performance in Wavelength-Routed networks,IEEE
Communication Magazine.February 1999 pp.67-73

2. Biswanth Mukhergee, Dhritiman Banergee, S.Ramamurthy And Amarnath Mukhergee,The

Principles for Designing a wide-area WDM Optical Network,IEEE/ACM
Trans.Networking,VOL. 4, NO. 5, October 1996, pp. 684-96.

3. Laxman H. Sahasrabudhe, Light trees: An Optical Layer for Tomorrow’s IP Networks,

www.usdavis.edu

4. Rajiv Ramaswami and kumara N. Sivarajan Optical Networks. Pp.333-336.

5. www.ieng.com/univercd/cc/td/doc/product/software

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