Effective Spectrum Utilization–based analysis of fragmentation aware spectrum allocation in elastic optical network

Abstract This paper presents an innovative resource allocation strategy for Multi-Core Fiber (MCF)-based Space Division Multiplexing (SDM) enabled Elastic Optical Networks (EON). The methodology incorporates crosstalk (XT)-aware spectrum slice allocation, dynamic core selection, and Effective Spectrum Utilization (ESU) to alleviate intercore interference while guaranteeing efficient resource utilization and scalability. The method minimizes fragmentation and maintains transmission quality by adaptively balancing spectral and spatial resources, even amid fluctuating traffic demands. Simulation results on benchmark topologies indicate significant performance enhancements: the Bandwidth Blocking Probability (BBP) improves by 13.33 % for NSFNET and 6.66 % for USNET, while fragmentation reduction achieves 23 % and 22.22 %, respectively. Moreover, the Connection Acceptance Success Ratio (CASR) increases by 2.02 % for NSFNET and 1.41 % for USNET. These results validate the efficacy of the proposed scheme in improving resource utilization, network performance, and scalability in SDM-EON.