Patent ID: 8068732
Filing Date: 2011-11-29
Classification: H04L,H04Q

Abstract:
1. A network design apparatus comprising: an information acquiring unit which acquires topology information concerning an optical network, equipment information concerning the kind of optical transmission equipment that can be placed at each station in said optical network, span information indicating transmission path conditions occurring between stations adjacent to each other on said topology information, and wavelength path information concerning each wavelength path propagating in said optical network; a section dividing unit which divides the optical network, defined by said topology information, into linear sections; a combination candidate determining unit which determines candidates for combinations of various kinds of optical transmission equipment to be placed at each station in each of said linear sections; a noise amount upper limit value determining unit which determines a noise amount upper limit value in accordance with a prescribed condition specified by said wavelength path information and corresponding to an upper limit to the amount of noise allowed for each said wavelength path; and an equipment placement unit which determines the optical transmission equipment to be placed along each of said linear sections, by solving an integer programming problem having an objective function that minimizes the sum of the cost of the optical transmission equipment to be placed in said optical network and the cost needed to place a necessary number of OEO regenerators for each said wavelength path, subject to constraints that combinations of the various kinds of optical transmission equipment are selected, one for each said linear section, from among said combination candidates and that the number of OEO regenerators necessary for each said wavelength path is determined by a cumulative amount of the noise occurring along said wavelength path, determined in accordance with said transmission path conditions specified by the span information, and said noise amount upper limit value determined for said wavelength path.