Case study of the evolution of routing algorithms in a network planning tool

Traffic routing is a key component in a network planning system. This paper concentrates on the routing algorithms and follows their evolution over multiple releases of a planning tool during a period of six years. The algorithms have grown from the initial stage of finding shortest paths with Dijkstra's algorithm to cover more complex routing tasks such as finding protected and unprotected routes and capacity limited routing. We present the algorithms and in particular emphasize the practical aspects: how previous algorithms were reused and what were the practical experiences of using the algorithms. A conclusion of the study is that algorithms should be considered with an engineering attitude. It is not enough to focus on selecting the most sophisticated state-of-the-art algorithm for a given problem. Evolution capability, potential for reuse, and the development cost over the system lifetime are equally important aspects. © 2001 Elsevier Science Inc. All rights reserved.