Energy-Efficient Optical Transport Networks with Mixed Regenerator Placement

In this chapter, the authors first discuss the background and basic concepts of all-optical regeneration and translucent optical networks. Since all-optical regenerator is much more energy-efficient than traditional O/E/O ones, they investigate translucent lightpath arrangement that involves mixed placement (MRP) of optical inline amplifiers (1R), all-optical 2R regenerators, and O/E/O 3R regenerators for energy-saving. In order to make sure that the end-to-end transmission performance requirement can still be satisfied with this arrangement, the authors analyze the signal BER evolution through fiber links and different types of regenerators, and propose a theoretical model. They then develop search strategies based on exhaustive search and genetic algorithms, and discuss how to use them to optimize the energy-efficiency of lightpaths using MRP. Finally, the authors move to the network design using MRP, in which they considered both offline network design and online network provisioning.