OPTIMIZED PARTITIONING OF A WAVELENGTH DISTRIBUTED DATA INTERFACE RING NETWORK

A fiber optic ring network, such as Fiber Distributed Data Interface ( FDDI), can be operated over multiple wavelengths on its existing fiber plant consisting of point-to-point fiber links. Using wavelength divi sion multiplexing (WDM) technology, FDDI nodes can be partitioned to o perate over multiple subnetworks, with each subnetwork operating indep endently on a different wavelength, and inter-subnetwork traffic forwa rding performed by a bridge, For this multiwavelength version of FDDI, which we refer to as Wavelength Distributed Data Interface (WDDI), we examine the necessary upgrades to the architecture of a FDDI node, in cluding its possibility to serve as a bridge. The main motivation behi nd this study is that, as network traffic scales beyond (the single-wa velength) FDDI's information-carrying capacity, its multiwavelength ve rsion, WDDI, can gracefully accommodate such traffic growth, A number of design choices exist in constructing a good WDDI network. Specifica lly, we investigate algorithms using which, based on prevailing traffi c conditions, partitioning of nodes into subnetworks can be performed in an optimized fashion. Our algorithms partition the nodes into subri ngs, such that the total traffic flow in the network and/or the networ k-wide average packet delay is minimized.