Abstract

This paper studies the physical layer's impact on the blocking probability and energy consumption of wide-area dynamic elastic optical networks (EONs). For this purpose, we consider five network configurations, each named with a network configuration identifier (NCI) from 1 to 5, for which the Routing, Modulation Level, and Spectrum Assignment (RMLSA) problem is solved. NCI 1-4 are transparent configurations based on all-EDFA, hybrid Raman/EDFA amplifiers (with different Raman gain ratio Gamma(R)), all-DFRA, and alternating span configuration (EDFA and DFRA). NCI 5 is a translucent configuration based on all-EDFA and 3R regenerators. We model the physical layer for every network configuration to determine the maximum achievable reach of optical signals. Employing simulation, we calculate the blocking probability and the energy consumption of the different network configurations. In terms of blocking, our results show that NCI 2 and 3 offer the lowest blocking probability, with at least 1 and 3 orders of magnitude of difference with respect to NCI 1 and 5 at high and low traffic loads, respectively. In terms of energy consumption, the best performing alternatives are the ones with the worst blocking (NCI 1), while NCI 3 exhibits the highest energy consumption with NCI Gamma(R) = 0.75 following closely. This situation highlights a clear trade-off between blocking performance and energy cost that must be considered when designing a dynamic EON. Thus, we identify NCI 2 using Gamma(R) = 0.25 as a promising alternative to reduce the blocking probability significantly in wide-area dynamic EONs without a prohibitive increase in energy consumption.