Dynamic optical networks will be crucial in global optical communications in the next 5-10 years in order to respond to the fast growing of on-demand services. Efficient
network planning tools that deal with routing and wavelength assignment (RWA) problems are of paramount relevance in this dynamic scenario. In this work, a simulator for planning dynamic optical networks was developed, and several real networks were tested. In the simulator, we have implemented a graph coloring wavelength assignment (WA) algorithm named Small-Buckets algorithm that allows recoloring to occur. A comparison performance with the First-fit algorithm is performed in terms of the blocking probability, number of recolorings, number of colors used and simulation time. It is concluded that the Small-Buckets algorithm originates lower blocking probabilities than the ones obtained with the First-fit algorithm despite requiring
a larger number of wavelengths and recolorings.