CABLE NETWORK REGIONAL CONNECTIVITY PLANNING METHOD AND APPARATUS
The present invention provides a cable network planning method comprising: modelling the prespecified topology as a Steiner tree including a plurality of terminal nodes representing a plurality of cable landing stations (CLSs) to be installed respectively in a plurality of destination regions connected by the cable network, a plurality of Steiner nodes presenting a plurality of branching units (BUs) to be installed in the cable network, and a plurality of edges connecting the terminal nodes and Steiner nodes; constructing a directed acyclic graph (DAG); finding a Steiner minimal tree (SMT) by applying a DAG-Least-Cost-System algorithm; returning coordinates of Steiner nodes, terminal nodes of the SMT as locations of the BUs and the CLSs. The provided method enables inclusion of costs of the Steiner nodes by taking account of Steiner nodes with degree in excess of three such that more flexible BU branching structures and CLS locations alternatives can be considered.