Optical fiber systems play an essential role in today's telecommunications networks. The recently standardized SONET technology has made a ring structure the preferred architecture for inter-city communication networks. In designing a SONET with ring structure, we consider inserting optional cites, which are not necessary in constructing the SONET, but cost- effective in connecting essential nodes in the ring. This problem is modeled as Steiner ring problem. Efficient heuristic procedures are developed based on the procedures for the traveling salesman problem. Computational results show that the proposed algorithm is excellent compared to the optimal solution. The error bound by the proposed method is within 4% in most problems.
