6. Conclusions
The recent growth of Internet traffic and emerging applications demand high performance of the optical networks, but the current technology’s rigid nature hinders the transmission of new demands, enforcing fixed data rates and reducing efficiency of the network’s resources. In this context, elastic optical networks have become increasingly interesting due to their capacity to provide flexible transmission rates that adapt to the heterogeneous traffic demands, which brings a new perspective on future Internet demands. This works focuses on solving the routing, modulation level, and spectrum allocation problem in a dynamic context through spectral modulation control, traffic and optical grooming. The proposed Maximizing the Use of Best Modulation Format approach associates these techniques to make better use of the networks’ spectral resources and to satisfy larger data rate demands by using higher modulation levels through multiple hops in the virtual topology.