Design of bandwidth abundant photonic networks that utilize flexible/multi-granular optical path routing

The expected explosion in traffic is driving the development of compact optical cross-connects and better spectrum utilization in fibers. Hierarchical optical path networks and elastic optical networks have been proposed independently to achieve these objectives. Due to their path-based characteristics, the role of network optimization techniques is critical in fully utilizing their benefits. In this paper, we summarize the difference from the optimization of conventional networks and the impact achieved by these techniques.