Assessment of node- and link- level blocking and creating cost-effective networks in the era of large bandwidth services

Abstract

Link-level and node-level blocking in photonic networks has been intensively investigated for several decades and the C/D/C approach to OXCs/ROADMs is often emphasized. However, this understanding will have to change in the future large traffic environment. We herein elucidate that exploiting node-level blocking can yield cost-effective large-capacity wavelength routing networks in the near future. We analyze the impact of link-level and node-level blocking in terms of traffic demand and assess the fiber utilization and the amount of hardware needed to develop OXCs/ROADMs, where the necessary number of link fibers and that of WSSs are used as metrics. We clarify that the careful introduction of node-level blocking is the more effective direction in creating future cost effective networks; compared to C/D/C OXCs/ROADMs, it offers a more than 70% reduction in the number of WSSs while the fiber increment is less than ∼2%.