Cost-effective DWDM ROADM design for flexible sustainable optical metro–access networks

Architectural changes are required for the underlying networks to support the expected Internet data traffic volume growth caused by the popularization of cloud services, 5G-based services, and social networks, to provide a highly dynamic connectivity. Cost-effective and energy-efficient solutions for flexible network subsystems are required to provide future sustainable networks. In this paper, we present a cost-effective dense wavelength division multiplexing (DWDM) reconfigurable optical add/drop multiplexer (ROADM) design enabling optical metro–access networks convergence. The cost-effective DWDM ROADM capabilities also have been assessed in an ultradense wavelength multiplexing (u-DWDM) ring network scenario. In particular, achievable network throughput has been considered.