We revisit spectrum allocation (SA), a fundamental problem in optical network design, and we explain that it can be modeled as a permutation problem. This new model eliminates spectrum symmetry, a property that presents a significant challenge to conventional spectrum allocation solutions. Accordingly, we develop parameterized first-fit (PFF), a new symmetry-free heuristic for the SA problem that has several desirable features: it explores a pre-defined subset of the solution space whose size is tailored to the available computational budget; it constructs this subset by sampling from diverse areas of the solution space rather than from the neighborhood of an initial solution; it finds solutions by applying the well-known first-fit (FF) algorithm and thus it can be deployed readily; its execution can be easily parallelized; and it is effective and efficient in finding good quality solutions.
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