An analysis of optimized CapEx for multi-core fiber based optical networks

In this article, we investigate the costs of optical network Capital Expenditure (CapEx) components which include fiber, optical amplifier (OA), cable and conduit. The CapEx of high-capacity optical network under given traffic requests is optimized, and results are analyzed to evaluate the influences of Multi-core Fiber (MCF) communication system on the components of optical network CapEx. To solve the optimization problem, network CapEx is modelled and an integer linear programming (ILP) formulation is proposed. Numerical results show that by using MCF communication system, optical network CapEx can be reduced significantly. The cost of OA takes the largest proportion of the network CapEx, and can be reduced by deploying MCF communication system to optical networks. Fiber density can be increased by using MCF, thus decreasing the costs of cable and conduit.