Patent ID: 8909043

Claim:
A method in a wavelength convertible flexible optical wavelength-division multiplexing (WC-FWDM) network having a plurality of optical nodes interconnected by a plurality of optical fibers, the network for providing an overall spectrum divisible into a set of consecutive wavelength slots, at least one of the plurality of optical nodes having at least one wavelength converter for wavelength conversion, the method comprising: determining a channel route through the network commencing at a source node and ceasing at a destination node, the channel route being selectively tunable responsive to selected ones of a plurality of routing methods, wherein the selected ones of the plurality of routing methods are so selected responsive to a routing policy having one or more objectives of minimization of a blocking of one of more channels in the set, minimization of a number of wavelength converters used in the network, minimization of physical distance traversed by a channel between a source node and a destination node, and minimization of operating wavelengths of a channel, wherein the channel route being selectively tunable comprises determining a set of input ports a j from the relationship a j ={min(w)|w εW uj }, where j and u denote nodes, w denotes a wavelength slot, and W uj denotes a set of available wavelength slots at nodes u and j.