Designing power-efficient wdm ring networks

Abstract

Traditionally, optical networks have been designed with the objective of minimizing the capital expenditure (CAPEX) without considering the operative costs (OPEX), due for instance to energy consumption. However, the increase of energy consumption and corresponding costs and the challenges imposed by the environmental issues (such as the global warming and the limited oil reserves) are demanding for a more responsible energy usage, including in the optical networking field. The paper discusses how the mandate of saving energy can be included into the network design process. Power-saving design of WDM metro rings with traffic grooming capabilities is presented and compared against CAPEX-optimized designs. Considerations on the power efficiency and cost efficiency of different ring architectures are derived. © Institute for Computer Sciences, Social-Informatics and Telecommunications Engineering 2010.