Capacity quantification of joint-switching-enabled flex-grid/SDM optical backbone networks

Universität Politècnica de Catalunya (UPC), C/Jordi Girona 1-3, 08034 Barcelona, Spain We quantify the network capacity scaling from 7 to 30 spatial channels. While multi-fiber provides a 5× capacity increase, MCF limits it to 4× and 2× in national and continental backbone networks, respectively.