Ant Colony Optimization Applied to the Problem of Choosing the Best Combination among M Combinations of Shortest Paths in Transparent Optical Networks

This paper presents an attempt to solve the problem of choosing the best combination among the M combinations of shortest paths in optical translucent networks. Fixed routing algorithms demands a single route to each pair of nodes. The existence of multiple shortest paths to some pairs of nodes originates the problem of choose the shortest path which fits better the network requests. The algorithm proposed in this paper is an adaptation of Ant Colony Optimization (ACO) metaheuristic and attempt to define the set of routes that fits in an optimized way the network conditions, resulting in reduced number of blocked requests and better adjusted justice in route distribution. A performance evaluation is conducted in real topologies by simulations, and the proposed algorithm shows better performance between the compared algorithms.