Routing, modulation, core and spectrum assignment techniques for crosstalk management in multi-core fiber based spatially multiplexed elastic optical networks

Multi-core fiber (MCF) based space-division multiplexed elastic optical networks (SDM-EON) is a promising technology to scale the capacity of optical transport networks. MCF-based SDM-EONs can potentially increase the network’s capacity with reduced cost and/or energy per bit. Crosstalk among the cores of MCF limits the efficient utilization of the available spectrum. Keeping the inter-core crosstalk below a threshold before establishing a new lightpath in the network is crucial. In this work, we have studied the impact of crosstalk while setting up flexible lightpaths in the MCF-based SDM-EON. Depending on the severity of inter-core crosstalk, we emphasize the importance of designing suitable resource allocation techniques, such as core selection, spectrum slot finding and crosstalk computation. In this work, we test the performance of various resource allocation algorithms in the presence of crosstalk. To circumvent the impact of crosstalk on the performance of MCF-based SDM-EONs, we propose two dynamic resource allocation algorithms, D-XT-Aware RMCSA and CR-FA-XT-Aware RMCSA. Extensive simulations are performed on three realistic network topologies to study the performance of benchmark and proposed algorithms under dynamic traffic conditions. Based on simulation results, we suggest RMCSA techniques suitable against the severity of inter-core crosstalk for MCF-based SDM-EONs.