Geometric Constellation Shaping in Elastic Optical Networks: Performance Analysis on Resource Allocation

The benefits from geometrical constellation shaping (GCS) are explored in a dynamic elastic optical network context. Using simulations, we evaluate the blocking performance of different forward error correction schemes and modulation formats over the NSFTNET and EUROCORE network topologies. Results show that GCS leads to a selection of denser modulation formats when solving the resource allocation problem in the network, which in turn reduces the network blocking performance compared to conventional QAM modulation formats. Traffic load increases between 5 and 13% for a blocking probability of 10
⁻³
are reported.