Benefits of limited wavelength conversion in WDM ring networks

The feasibility of providing limited wavelength conversion capability in wavelength-division multiplexing (WDM) ring networks is discussed. If worst-case guarantees are required, wavelength conversion helps significantly in rings. Rearranging existing lightpaths to accommodate new ones will enable the network to support much higher loads, with limited conversion. The guaranteed loads that can be supported are much smaller for the dynamic assignments case without lightpath deletions and even smaller if deletions are allowed. However, there is still room for designing better wavelength assignment algorithms, particularly with limited wavelength conversion.