Low-complexity physical layer impairment aware spectrum assignment based on discretized Gaussian model for nonlinear noise in elastic optical networks

Abstract A physical layer impairment (PLI)-aware spectrum assignment (SA) algorithm has been introduced for elastic optical networks (EON) using a discretized Gaussian model for nonlinear interfering noise (NLIN). This SA scheme is derived exploiting achievable rate and minimum signal-to-noise (SNR) margin as our design evaluation metric. Comparing to previously proposed techniques, the proposed SA method shows a significant performance improvement in a fiber-optic link, especially in large traffic values, both with optimum variable and flat channel power allocation. Comparison of numerical results performed for the DTG network shows up to 3.2 dB improvement in the minimum SNR margin for both flat and variable power optimization scenarios. The low complexity of the introduced SA approach makes it useful for PLI-aware heuristic as well as mixed integer linear programming based network planning schemes for EONs.