Method and apparatus for reducing cost of optical amplification in a network

An apparatus to plan deployment of optical network elements (ONEs), the apparatus comprising:

• a processor and memory implementing:
• an initialization unit configured to initialize models of ONEs within a topology of ONEs with a model of an amplifier with amplification and noise characteristics compatible with respective ONEs;
• a computing unit configured to compute an optical signal-to-noise ratio (OSNR) margin table as a function of the topology and model of amplification and noise characteristics, optical regenerations within the topology represented by negative OSNR margins in the OSNR margin table;
• a replacement unit configured to iteratively replace models of low-gain amplifiers operating at a high gain setting within a range of operating gain settings for the models of low-gain amplifiers with models of high-gain amplifiers operating at a low gain setting within a range of operating gain settings for the models of high-gain amplifiers with corresponding amplification and noise characteristics within at least a subset of the models of ONEs;
• the computing unit further configured to recompute the OSNR margin table to reduce the number of negative OSNR margins within the OSNR margin table to reduce the corresponding optical regenerations within the topology;
• and
• a reporting unit configured to report indications of amplifiers represented by the models of amplifiers after a given number of iterations.

A non-transitory computer readable medium having a computer readable program, the computer readable program, when executed by a computer, causing the computer to:

• initialize models of optical network elements (ONEs) within a topology of ONEs with a model of an amplifier with amplification and noise characteristics compatible with respective ONEs;
• compute an optical signal-to-noise ratio (OSNR) margin table as a function of the topology and model of amplification and noise characteristics, optical regenerations within the topology represented by negative OSNR margins in the OSNR margin table;
• iteratively replace models of low-gain amplifiers operating at a high gain setting within a range of operating gain settings for the models of low-gain amplifiers with models of high-gain amplifiers operating at a low gain setting within a range of operating gain settings for the models of high-gain amplifiers with corresponding amplification and noise characteristics within at least a subset of the models of ONEs;
• recompute the OSNR margin table to reduce the number of negative OSNR margins within the OSNR margin table to reduce the corresponding optical regenerations within the topology;
• and
• report indications of amplifiers represented by the models of amplifiers after a given number of iterations.