Routing, Modulation Format, Spatial Lane, and Spectrum Block Assignment in Static Spatial Channel Networks

Abstract

Spatial channel networks (SCNs) and related key technologies have been proposed to increase the capacity and flexibility of optical networks. We define the network resource allocation problem in a static SCN as the routing, modulation format (MF), spatial lane, and spectrum block assignment (RMSSA) problem and try to solve it. In this paper, we derive the relationship between the traffic bit rate, the transmission distance of optical channels, and MFs in SCNs, and obtain the adoption method of MFs. In addition, we introduce conversion nodes (CNs) into SCNs to perform a modulation format conversion (MFC) for more efficient use of network resources. Moreover, the RMSSA problem in static SCNs is modeled, and heuristic spatial lane and spectrum block minimization based on simulated annealing (LBMSA) algorithm is proposed to solve the RMSSA problem. Simulation results show that when the throughput of SCNs is small, the LBMSA algorithm can carry traffic requests with the least amount of network resources and maximize the network resource utilization. When the network throughput is high, the LBMSA algorithm is more inclined to carry all requests rather than efficient transmission. We also show that network resource utilization can be improved with the LBMSA algorithm by setting CNs to perform the MFC.