In this article , we studied the associated research problems and challenges on routing and wavelength assignment (RWA) in WDM (wavelength division multiplexing) networks. Various RWA approaches are examined and compared.We proposed a new RWA algorithm based on multi-objective. In this new algorithm, we consider multiple network optimizing objectives to setup a lightpath with maximize profit and shortest path under the limited resources. By comparing and analyzing, the pro posed algorithm is much better than the algorithms, which only consider one optimizing objective.