A Multi-Dual Ring Connected Shuffle Network is an optical multichannel multihop architecture proposed for wide area networks (WAN). With a simple fixed routing algorithm, this network architecture can achieve better performance than the Perfect ShuffleNet. In this paper, we propose a simple adaptive routing scheme which can achieve an even better performance. The adaptive routing scheme can quickly disperse packets away from congested portions of the network. Unlike centralized routing algorithms, the distributed routing algorithm uses only local state information and does not require a priori knowledge of the traffic patterns. Also, in contrast with some adaptive routing algorithms proposed for the Perfect ShuffleNet, the routing algorithm can distribute some of the traffic over less busy channels without increasing the length of the path. Moreover, in the case of network link failure, the adaptive routing scheme can direct the traffic around the 'trouble' area, which makes the network survivable. Since the whole idea of the scheme is to distribute traffic evenly among all the channels as much as possible, it can reduce the maximum traffic intensity on each channel, thus decreasing the size of pre-allocated buffer. All these characters make it very suitable for optical network architectures. The deloading factor is used in assessing the performance. Static simulations are performed under the worst condition and the most likely scenarios. The results support the preceding statements. The ideas presented here may be used for other optical WAN architectures, as long as each Metropolitan Area Network is multiconnected in a ring topology.

In the present world, the demand to support different types of nationwide traffic (data. voice, video, etc.) requires a high bandwidth and a suitable network topology. Optical fiber offers the potential to supply a pool of capacity to be shared among users and can meet the demands. In this paper, we propose a network topology which serves the above purpose and a routing algorithm which fully deploys the advantages of the topology. The proposed Multi-Dual Ring Connected Shuffle Network Topology, which can be easily implemented with Wavelength Division Multiplexing (WDM) and a multi-hop approach, can eliminate the traffic bottleneck of existing optical communication networks. The proposed adaptive self-routing algorithm can disperse packets away from 'trouble' portions of the network should a congestion or a link failure occur, thus makes the traffic distributed as evenly as possible among all the communication channels available and makes the network survivable. The routing scheme, which does not require a priori knowledge of the traffic pattern, can exploit the full potential communication bandwidth of the proposed network topology. It has the benefits of adaptive routing schemes but adds virtually no extra costs. Since the routing scheme is veiy simple and the switching can be done "on the fly", the proposed network architecture can be a good candidate for the backbone of Information SuperHighway.