A new hierarchical optical path network design algorithm that incorporates restrictions on waveband add/drop ratios at nodes is proposed. We evaluate its effectiveness by conducting extensive numerical experiments. The effects of the network parameters, which include network size, link distance, and network topology, on total network cost are elucidated. The results show that the proposed algorithm, which considers restrictions on the waveband add/drop ratio, yields almost the same cost as an algorithm that does not consider the add/drop ratio when the ratio is not so stringent, say, greater than 0.3. It is also demonstrated that choosing the waveband capacity properly is critical in minimizing total network cost.
