Optical networking, with its almost unlimited bandwidth, is the only technology that can support communication new applications with high demand for bandwidth such as remote visualization, teleimmersion, collaborative e-science etc. In the optical networks presently deployed, each link is optically isolated by transponders doing O/E/O conversions. But these transponders are quite expensive and lack transparency; hence there is a strong motivation to use large all-optical networks. In all-optical networks, all routes need not have adequate signal quality. To provide reliable and transparent service, there is a strong interest in the industry for routing protocols that take into consideration the impairments of optical layer that degrade quality of the signal. We present a new routing protocol that uses information about the quality of signal to select paths in an all-optical network. Our simulations confirm that this new protocol reaches higher network utilization compared to existing ones.

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