Comparative evaluation of spectrum allocation policies for dynamic flexgrid optical networks

A novel class-based first-fit spectrum allocation policy is proposed for dynamic Flexgrid optical networks. The effectiveness of the proposed policy is compared against the first-fit policy for single-hop and multi-hop scenarios. Event-based simulation technique is used for testing the spectrum allocation policies under both Fixed Routing and Fixed Alternate Routing algorithms with two shortest paths. Throughput is shown to be consistently improved under the proposed policy with gains of up to 15 % in certain scenarios.