On the Cost Efficiency of Flexible Optical Networking Compared to Conventional SLR/MLR WDM Networks

Flexible optical networking solutions try to utilize the available amplifier's bandwidth/spectrum more effectively (compared to the fixed-grid WDM counterparts) by properly adapting the channel capacity to the actual traffic requirements of each connection at any given point in time (as this is the case in wireless networks where bandwidth was always considered as a scarce resource). The flexibility in dynamic bandwidth allocation is enabled by novel physical layer technologies and advanced algorithms that take advantage of the new capabilities of the optical layer. In this paper we provide detailed justification on the cost-benefits introduced in core networks due to the added flexibility from elastic software-defined network technologies.