Quasi-CWDM optical network: cost effective and spectrum efficient architecture for future optical networks (invited)

Elastic optical network (EON) is a promising candidate for the next generation optical transport network because of its high spectrum efficiency and flexible spectrum allocation. However, to migrate from today´s dense wavelength division multiplexing (DWDM) network to EON, optical nodes such as reconfigurable optical add/drop multiplexers (ROADMs) should be replaced with the ones with expensive flexi-grid wavelength selective switches (WSSs). Thus, whether and how today´s optical network will be evolved to EON is still under debate. Meanwhile, with the technical maturity of optical super-channels that transmit bit rates at the level of 1 Tb/s, super-channels are expected to dominate the future optical transport network because of their attractiveness of high spectrum efficiency and superior cost effectiveness. In this paper, we propose a new quasi-coarse wavelength division multiplexing (Quasi-CWDM) optical network architecture that is compatible to today´s WDM network in spectrum operation, while still maintaining the flexibility of adaptation between the bit rate and the transparent reach of an optical super-channel, but not requiring expensive flexi-grid WSSs. Specifically, the Quasi-CWDM optical network employs large fixed frequency grids, whose spacing falls between the traditional CWDM and DWDM, e.g., 200 GHz or 400 GHz. To maintain the flexibility between the bit rate and the transparent reach of an optical super-channel, different modulation formats are chosen according to channel physical distances. To minimize network hardware cost and maximize carried user traffic demand, we develop a mixed integer linear programming (MILP) model and a heuristic algorithm that can efficiently groom upper-layer IP traffic onto the optical layer by optical super-channels. We compare the design based on the Quasi-CWDM network to those based on the DWDM network and the advanced EON. It is found that the proposed Quasi-CWDM network has a much lower hardware cost than the o- her two types of networks, while achieving spectrum efficiency close to EON.