Techno-economic analysis of multiservice networks: Cost allocation to services: A study for flex-grid optical networks

Based on an existing approach to techno-economic analysis of telecommunication networks, a calculation framework for cost allocation to services is proposed. In particular, the relation between network planning and cost calculation is revealed. This framework is then used to investigate the allocation of infrastructure costs to transport services for flex-grid optical networks. The impact of different off-line routing and spectrum allocation algorithms on the cost per service is evaluated. For large networks it is shown that flex-grid can be a cost-efficient technology for the provisioning of elastic transport services.