Spatially–Jointed Flexible Waveband Routing Optical Networks Adopting Shared Path Protection

We propose a cost-effective and survivable space-division multiplexing optical network architecture that offers spatially-jointed flexible waveband routing (SJ-FWR) and shared path protection. A strategy to group backup paths by sharing frequency resources is developed to take advantage of the switching capability of SJ-FWR. We also show a network design algorithm based on the backup path grouping strategy. Numerical simulations on several network topologies elucidate that the number of fibers necessary is reduced by up to 25% compared to the dedicated path protection approach and a substantial hardware scale reduction is achieved relative to conventional networks with shared path protection.