ABSTRACT
An optimization problem is used to find the best solution from all feasible solutions. An optimization problem can be solved by mathematical programming, a technique that expresses and solves problems as mathematical models. This chapter begins with a general description of optimization problems, and presents different integer linear programming formulation for problems in elastic optical networks (EONs). A linear programming (LP) problem is an optimization problem in which the objective function and all the constraints are expressed as linear functions. An LP problem in which decision variables take only integer values is called an Integer linear programming (ILP) problem. The chapter focuses on different ILP problems related to the spectrum resource management in EONs. It discusses how to determine the number of required partitions of subcarrier slots for each fiber link. The chapter explores the optimization problem to minimize the spectrum fragmentation while limiting the number of network operations in 1+1 protected EONs.
