Traffic route finder in communications network

摘要

There is disclosed a route finder method and apparatus for satisfying point to multi-point connection requests in a communications network comprising a plurality of nodes connected by a plurality of links. A cost is assigned to each network link. For each connection request a set of all network nodes not included in its source node or its plurality of destination nodes are selected. An array of bits is created with an array element corresponding to a selected node element having a value of 1 if the node is Steiner vertex for a Steiner tree of nodes not selected, otherwise the array element has a value of 0. Each array is treated as a bit string and considered as population members which are manipulated by genetic algorithms. The fitness of the population members is evaluated by calculating the cost of traversing the routes represented by the bit strings. The method is capable of routing a plurality of multi-point connection requests, and selecting an overall optimum solution.