Comparing Heuristics for Demand Routing and Slot Assignment on Ring Networks

This paper examines various heuristic strategies for solving the demand routing and slotting problem (DRSP) on ring networks. This problem arises in the economic design of survivable networks using SONET (or WDM) technology. To cost-effectively deploy SONET rings, we must determine the minimum capacity required to assure survivability while obeying constraints on how traffic must be assigned. We present several heuristics for sizing rings and compare their solutions. Our results give rise to a heuristic that consistently delivers solutions that are within 5% of the optimal over a wide range of randomly generated test problems. [PUBLICATION ABSTRACT]