Does Considering Only Crosstalk Suffice for QoT-Aware Provisioning in Multicore Fiber Networks?

QoT-aware resource allocation schemes in multicore fiber networks often emphasize and consider only the crosstalk, ignoring fiber nonlinearity, ASE noise, and the effects of new demands on existing traffic. This paper quantitatively investigates and answers whether this approach significantly underestimates physical layer impairments compared to studies that include all impairments and their detrimental effects. The contributions of each degradation are analyzed on two network topologies for various power levels and traffic loads.