Multi-dimensional resource assignment in spatial division multiplexing enabled elastic optical networks with multi-core fibers

In this paper, the problem of routing, core, and spectrum assignment (RCSA) for advance reservation (AR) and immediate reservation (IR) requests is studied in spatial division multiplexing enabled elastic optical networks (SDM-EONs) with multi-core fibers (MCFs). As lightpaths are set up and torn down, fragmentations may occur in both spectrum and time dimensions in SDM-EONs. To measure these fragmentations, we design a metric, named multi-dimensional resource compactness (MRC). Based on MRC, two RCSA algorithms are proposed, first-fit resource assignment algorithm based on MRC (FF-MRC) and random-fit resource assignment algorithm based on MRC (RF-MRC). Simulation results show that both FF-MRC and RF-MRC can achieve beer performance than the baseline algorithm in terms of blocking probability and spectrum utilization, with FF-MRC providing the best performance.