Spectrum fragmentation issue in flexible optical networks: analysis and good practices

Flexible grid optical networks allow an efficient utilization of spectrum resources using 12.5-GHz frequency slot multiples instead of a fixed spacing, introducing however spectrum fragmentation (SF). In the literature, SF is often assumed to be a serious problem specifically in a dynamic traffic context. It is mostly related to the bandwidth blocking ratio due to the lack of relevant comparison criteria and efficient metrics. Besides, in operator core network, traffic behavior is instead incremental and it is forecasted for short periods of time in addition to some operational constraints that make of it a specific context. In this work, we present an exhaustive analysis and an accurate evaluation for SF issue in flexible optical networks. We also propose new metric for fragmentation measurements and some approaches to address such a problem.