Resource allocation policies in SDM optical networks (Invited paper)

The capacity benefits of flexi-grid optical networks are limited by the finite amount of bandwidth of standard fibers, and will not be able to scale indefinitely. Space Division Multiplexing (SDM) has emerged as a promising technology to overcome this limitation. In this preliminary work we give an overview of current SDM technologies, covering coupled and non-coupled SDM networks, and of the possibilities and limitations they bring to the problem of Routing, Space and Spectrum Allocation (RSSA). We focus on the trade-offs between spectral efficiency and amount of transmission devices enabled by SDM technologies, presenting a number of preliminary heuristic policies to solve RSSA, and evaluating them in the context of dynamic traffic by means of simulations. We show that different heuristics can optimize different aspects of RSSA, and that one strikes a reasonable balance.