Physical layer design of optical networks with practical considerations

Nowadays, many telecom operators consider fiber-based access networks as a major solution to provide bandwidth hungry services such as High Definition TV over IPTV, online gaming, video streaming, high speed Internet, etc. However, today´s telecom market is facing tough competitions with very tight budget and limited human resources. Return on investment for the deployment of new networks or transformation of legacy networks to fiber-based networks need to be maximized. One way to minimize the capital expenditure (CAPEX) costs is through automation of the network design. Not only can it reduce the time and the cost of manual design but it can also optimize the design with a minimum cost. In this paper, our network planning system based on the mixed integer linear programming (MILP) approach is proposed with the main focus on solving practical scenarios which are related to design constraints with clear boundaries of planning areas. Advantages of having clear boundaries from the practical point of view are discussed in detail and the model to solve this problem is provided.