Using tunable optical transceivers for reducing the number of ports in WDM/TDM networks

We consider the benefits of using tunable transceivers for reducing the required number of ports in WDM/TDM optical networks. We show that tunable transceivers can be used to efficiently "groom" subwavelength traffic and significantly reduce the number of ports compared to the fixed tuned case. We provide a new formulation for this "tunable grooming" problem and develop algorithms for designing such networks.