Impact of electrical grooming and regeneration of wavelength paths in creating hierarchical optical path networks

Abstract

We assess the impact of utilizing electrical cross-connects for the intermediate grooming and 3R regeneration of wavelength paths in a hybrid hierarchical optical path network. Simulation results prove that they offer a significant cost reduction. We also investigate the dependencies of network cost on network parameters including optically-transparent reach, electrical switch port cost, and waveband capacity. It is demonstrated that it is critical to choose the waveband capacity properly in order to minimize total network cost.