Energy-efficient Multicast Algorithm for Survivable WDM Networks

In recent years, multicast services such as high-definition television (HDTV), video conferencing, interactive distance learning, and distributed games have increased exponentially, and wavelength-division multiplexing (WDM) networks are considered to be a promising technology due to their support for multicast applications. Multicast survivability in WDM networks has been the focus of extensive attention since a single-link failure in an optical network may result in a massive loss of data. But the improvement of network survivability increases energy consumption due to more resource allocation for protection. In this paper, an energy-efficient multicast algorithm (EEMA) is proposed to reduce energy consumption in WDM networks. Two cost functions are defined based on the link state to determine both working and protection paths for a multicast request in WDM networks. To increase the number of sleeping links, the link cost function of the working path aims to integrate new working path into the links with more working paths. Sleeping links indicate the links in sleep mode, which do not have any working path. To increase bandwidth utilization by sharing spare capacity, the cost function of the protection path is defined to use sleeping fibers for establishing new protection paths. Finally, the performance of the proposed algorithm is evaluated in terms of energy consumption, and also the blocking probability is evaluated under various traffic environments through OPNET. Simulation results show that our algorithm reduces energy consumption while maintaining the quality of service.