Migration Strategies Toward All Optical Metropolitan Access Rings

• Published in: Journal of lightwave technology Vol. 25; no. 8; pp. 1918 - 1930
• Main Authors: Finochietto, J.M., Aracil, J., Ferreiro, A., Fernandez-Palacios Gimenez, J. P., Gonzalez de Dios, O.
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: New York, NY IEEE 01.08.2007; Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers; The Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers, Inc. (IEEE)
• Subjects: All optical circuits; Applied sciences; Associate members; Capital expenditures; Circuit properties; Comparative analysis; Electric, optical and optoelectronic circuits; Electronics; Exact sciences and technology; Expenditures; Mathematical analysis; Matrices; Matrix methods; Metropolitan area networks; Networks; Optical and optoelectronic circuits; Optical buffering; Optical burst switching; optical circuit switching; Optical fiber communications; Optical fiber networks; optical networks; Optical packet switching; Optical receivers; Optical telecommunications; performance evaluation; SONET; Studies; Switching and signalling; Switching circuits; Switching theory; Synchronous digital hierarchy; Systems, networks and services of telecommunications; Telecommunication traffic; Telecommunications; Telecommunications and information theory; Teletraffic; Traffic engineering; Traffic flow; Europe; Spain; Performance evaluation; Metropolitan area networks; optical burst switching; Optical telecommunication; optical networks; optical circuit switching; Ring network; Metropolitan area network; Optimization; Optical circuit; Optical fiber network; Wide band; Optical switching; Optoelectronic device; Optical fiber communication; Burst switching; Packet switching; Circuit switching; Teletraffic; Receiver; Bandwidth allocation; Market survey; All optical circuit; Access network; Cost analysis; Resource management
• ISSN: 0733-8724; 1558-2213
• DOI: 10.1109/JLT.2007.901325

Nowadays, network operators are steadily deploying optical circuit switching (OCS) equipment in their metropolitan networks in order to cope with traffic increase and, most importantly, in order to reduce capital expenditures and operational expenditures of existing active technologies. On the other hand, optical burst switching (OBS) technology is expected to become mature in the medium term, and it may be used as an alternative to current OCS networks due to its potential advantages in terms of bandwidth allocation granularity. While OBS is being extensively studied in the literature, little attention has been paid in conducting a comparative analysis of OBS versus OCS, especially concerning cost analysis. In this paper, we provide a comparative analysis of OBS versus OCS as an evolutionary technology for all-optical rings in the metropolitan-access network. This paper is specifically targeted toward optimizing the number of optoelectronic receivers and wavelengths with real traffic matrices from the metropolitan rings in Madrid, Spain. Such matrices also include traffic projections of foreseeable broadband services, which are based on a market analysis from the largest operator in Spain. Our findings show that OCS might be more efficient than OBS in the metro-access segment, which is characterized by a highly centralized traffic pattern. However, the more distributed the traffic is, the more efficient the OBS is as well. Consequently, OBS might be better suited to metro-core networks, which show a more distributed and dynamic traffic pattern.