New challenges in next-generation optical network planning

This work summarizes the main challenges that arise and need to be addressed in the core networks of the next generation, focusing on the excessive power-consumption, the heterogeneity of the traffic and the ever-growing need for transmission capacity. To achieve the “greening” of optical networks this paper proposes an energy-driven planning framework consisting of promising research efforts that aim to this target. In addition, we discuss the heterogeneous nature of the traffic that is rapidly transforming today´s optical networks so as to accommodate mixed-line rates of 10 Gb/s, 40 Gb/s and 100 Gb/s. To this end the associated planning issues are visited. The unprecedented data traffic growth though, drives future optical networks even beyond 100 Gb/s. Optical Orthogonal Frequency Division Multiplexing (O-OFDM) is identified as a promising solution due to its intrinsic characteristics of spectrum efficiency and scalability, imposing though new networking constraints.