Benefits of sliceable photonic based transponders in metro networks

In this paper, we analyze benefits of sliceable photonics based transponders (line modules) compared to designs with discrete optics transponder based solutions (CFP/CFP2 - C form-factor pluggable) in Metro Network. The parameters considered are the cost in terms of number of transponders and power utilization. We assume OTN based network with QPSK and 16QAM modulation schemes for the both. We observed that photonic integration based sliceable transponders (sliceable photonics) is much more advantageous than discrete transponder optics, both running with either QPSK or 16QAM modulation schemes. Finally, we compare the effect of modulation schemes on the efficiency of the network by comparing QPSK and 16QAM in discrete transponder optics and show that 16QAM in discrete transponder optics makes the network more inefficient.