Techno-economic analysis of fixed and flexible node architectures in multiperiod scenarios [Invited]

We analyze the capital expenditures (CapEx) and operational expenditures (OpEx) related to the power consumption and footprint requirements of fixed and flexible node architectures in a multiperiod scenario and under different traffic requirements. We consider fixed architectures based on muxponders, and nonblocking and partial nonblocking flexible architectures based on electrical cross connects (EXC) of different sizes. In flexible architectures, the impact of hitless traffic regrooming on the network CapEx and OpEx is also assessed. Results show that in spite of the initial higher investment required by flexible architectures, in the long term they tend to present lower CapEx and OpEx. Moreover, hitless regrooming can assist in postponing the need for increasing the footprint requirements in partial nonblocking EXCs.