Global concurrent optimization: Advantages and opportunities in flexgrid-based networks

In future flexgrid core networks the amount of lightpaths might increase significantly as a consequence of the finer granularity in the use of the optical spectrum. Different spectrum bandwidth can be allocated to each lightpath as a function of, among others, the bitrate amount to be conveyed and the modulation format used. As result, spectrum fragmentation might appear leading to non-optimal resource utilization. In addition, a failure in a fibre link could trigger hundreds, or even thousands, of path computations requests to a centralized Path Computation Element (PCE). Latter examples can benefit from using the recently standardized Global Concurrent Optimization (GCO), which enhances PCE's computation capabilities. In this paper we present two opportunities to take advantage of the PCE+GCO architecture: spectrum defragmentation and restoration.