Elastic optical networks (EONs) enable a more efficient use of spectrum resources than traditional wavelength-division multiplexing (WDM) networks, mainly by means of a flexible frequency grid and the use of bandwidth variable transponders (BVTs). In WDM networks, regeneration is avoided because it always produces a cost increase and it is only recommended when the transmission length cannot be met. Instead, in EONs, a trade-off exists between regeneration and spectrum use. Indeed, blocking probability can be widely reduced by incorporating regeneration (BVTs in a back-to-back configuration) to shorten the transmission lengths, therefore increasing spectrum efficiency. Provisioning algorithms that take into account this trade-off consider regeneration either as a cost to be minimized (full regeneration capacity) or as a resource to be smartly used (bounded number of predeployed transponders).

In recent years, algorithms that minimize the resource use of either spectrum or BVT have been proposed. These algorithms, however, penalize the overall network performance in terms of blocking probability and cost, since they do not take into account the available resources. In this work, we propose two novel resource-aware algorithms, that take into account all available resources in the provisioning process. We report simulation results showing that using these resource-aware algorithms: (i) when full regeneration capacity is assumed, the regeneration cost can be reduced by more than a 30% compared to the opaque solution and by a 10% compared to the best known algorithms; (ii) for the bounded case, resource-aware strategies can reduce blocking probability by thousands of times compared to the transparent solution and by hundreds of times compared to the best known algorithms. Our results show that resource awareness helps to decrease the blocking probability while increasing the actual network capacity, thanks to a more efficient assignment of both spectrum and BVT resources.

弹性光网络 (EON) 能够比传统的波分复用 (WDM) 网络更有效地利用频谱资源，主要是通过灵活的频率网格和带宽可变转发器 (BVT) 的使用。在 WDM 网络中，避免再生是因为它总是会增加成本，并且仅在无法满足传输长度时才推荐使用。相反，在 EON 中，再生和频谱使用之间存在权衡。实际上，通过合并再生（背对背配置中的 BVT）来缩短传输长度，从而提高频谱效率，可以大大降低阻塞概率。

近年来，已经提出了最小化频谱或 BVT 资源使用的算法。然而，这些算法在阻塞概率和成本方面对整体网络性能不利，因为它们没有考虑可用资源。在这项工作中，我们提出了两种新颖的资源感知算法，它们考虑了配置过程中的所有可用资源。我们报告的模拟结果表明，使用这些资源感知算法：(i) 当假设完全再生能力时，与不透明解决方案相比，再生成本可以降低 30% 以上，与最知名的算法相比，可以降低 10%；(ii) 对于有界情况，与透明解决方案相比，资源感知策略可以将阻塞概率降低数千倍，与最知名的算法相比可以降低数百倍。我们的结果表明，由于更有效地分配频谱和 BVT 资源，资源感知有助于降低阻塞概率，同时增加实际网络容量。