Algorithm for traffic grooming in optical networks to minimize the number of transceivers

We study the problem of traffic grooming to reduce the number of transceivers in optical networks. We show that this problem is equivalent to a certain traffic maximization problem. We give an intuitive interpretation of this equivalence and use this interpretation to derive a greedy algorithm for transceiver minimization. We discuss implementation issues and present computational results comparing the heuristic solutions with the optimal solutions for several small example networks. For larger networks, the heuristic solutions are compared with known bounds on the optimal solution obtained using integer programming tools.