Applying 4-regular grid structures in large-scale access networks

4-Regular grid structures have been used in multiprocessor systems for decades due to a number of nice properties with regard to routing, protection, and restoration, together with a straightforward planar layout. These qualities are to an increasing extent demanded also in large-scale access networks, but concerning protection and restoration these demands have been met only to a limited extent by the commonly used ring and tree structures. To deal with the fact that classical 4-regular grid structures are not directly applicable in such networks, this paper proposes a number of extensions concerning restoration, protection, scalability, embeddability, flexibility, and cost. The extensions are presented as a tool case, which can be used for implementing semi-automatic and in the longer term full automatic network planning tools.