Method and apparatus for planning network configuration in an optical network

Optical regenerators and amplifiers are expensive to implement and maintain. A method or corresponding apparatus in an example embodiment of the present invention relates to an optical planning tool that plans an optical network configuration by determining a plurality of costs for maintaining signal strength in corresponding network configurations including (i) a configuration of regenerators, (ii) a configuration of pre- or post-amplifiers, and (iii) a configuration of pre- and post-amplifiers in candidate locations and regenerator modules. The candidate locations for placing pre- or post-amplifiers are determined based on loss in each span, expected traffic patterns, and proposed regeneration locations along paths of expected traffic. The regeneration modules are located in locations determined based on the candidate locations. The example embodiment selects a configuration from among the network configurations as a function of the plurality of costs, helping reduce the cost of network deployment.