Dynamic WDM network performance: The impact of banding in reconfigurable optical add/drop multiplexers

This thesis investigates the impact of banding in limited reconfigurable optical add/drop multiplexers (L-ROADMs) on network performance in dynamic wavelength division multiplexed (WDM) networks. We quantify the trade-off between L-ROADM tunability and the number of L-ROADMs in wavelength-routed, single-hop, single-fibre, unidirectional metropolitan ring networks. We find that L-ROADMs can be deployed under static traffic conditions without compromising network connectivity and without additional wavelengths. Under dynamic traffic conditions, 30% of the nodes can accommodate L-ROADMs under uniformly distributed traffic for an L-ROADM tuning range of 50% of the spectrum. This increases to 45% of the nodes for hub traffic. In both static and dynamic traffic, a hub network is most favourable for deploying L-ROADMs—a finding of particular relevance in metropolitan networks.