Optimal Slot Size under Various Bandwidth Distributions in the Flexible-grid Optical Networks

Abstract: Flexible grid Optical Networks are efficient mechanism to provide flexibility in the optical spectrum utilization. For such networks, the slot width size as specified by the ITU-T G.694.1 is 12.5 GHz. However, one should question if it is the optimal grid size? In this paper, under different bandwidth distribution scenarios, we review which slot size give appropriate spectrum efficiency. Moreover, we present a study of the slot sizes with varying incoming traffic having some bandwidth requirement under different scenarios.