Abstract
The ever-increasing Internet traffic demand introduces new challenges for telecommunications carriers. Telecom networks will have to be upgraded to cope with the new capacity requirements. However, deploying enough capacity is not the only requirement for network operators. The impact of new technologies in terms of capital investment and energy consumption becomes a key issue. There is a special interest in investigating new mechanisms and technologies to improve the energy efficiency of future networks, while maintaining the high reliability and service availability of current optical transport networks. This article evaluates the energy- and cost-efficiency of an innovative flexible-grid orthogonal-frequency-division-multiplexing (OFDM) -based network and compares them with those for conventional wavelength-division-multiplexing (WDM) networks. Due to the importance of resilience in optical transport networks, the study considers and evaluates different protection schemes. The results demonstrate the potential energy efficiency improvements that can be achieved by an elastic OFDM-based technology, especially when a shared protection scheme is adopted, and give an insight into the potential cost benefits that such a novel technology can offer to telecommunication carriers.
Sign-in/Register to access full text options 
Talk to us
Join us for a 30 min session where you can share your feedback and ask us any queries you have
Schedule a callDisclaimer: All third-party content on this website/platform is and will remain the property of their respective owners and is provided on "as is" basis without any warranties, express or implied. Use of third-party content does not indicate any affiliation, sponsorship with or endorsement by them. Any references to third-party content is to identify the corresponding services and shall be considered fair use under The CopyrightLaw.
