Impact of Margins Evolution Along Ageing in Elastic Optical Networks

We compare the cost efficiency of optical networks based on elastic transponders when accounting for network ageing that impacts link margins. Network design of Germany50, France43, and India71 WDM backbone networks is simulated for providing results during a ten-year period, given different throughputs, traffic growth rates and cost erosions of elastic optical transponders. We also investigate the distribution of the ageing margins and modulation schemes that might be changed during the life of the network, before its end-of-life. We evaluate the potential benefits of finer granularity rate-adaptive transponders to better progressively fit ageing of the margin in wavelength division multiplexing networks. The underlying technology and cost savings are presented for the three aforementioned network core topologies.