Calculating the optimal optical ultra-long haul network

Today's new generation of undersea cable systems extensively uses optical amplifiers, which allows the systems to be implemented over transoceanic distances. Optical amplifiers offer significantly increased transmission capacity, networking functionality and operational flexibility - all potentially at lower cost than traditional regeneration systems. Thus, similar techniques are now being used in terrestrial networks to exploit the wide bandwidth of optical fibers for long-distance transmission (thousand of miles) since the frequency range is in THz. A network optimization design methodology for ultra-long-haul terrestrial networks is presented and a variety of network architectures analyzed: optical networks with a 1:N path restoration mechanism; optical networks with express routes and a 1:N path restoration; line shared protection ring (LSPR) networks. This methodology is applied to an example network using several traffic scenarios. The optimal network architecture depends on the network itself and on the criteria determining the network design.