High availability path design in ring-based optical networks

This work develops mathematical models for path availability and provisioning resources required in various strategies for realizing high availability service paths in a transport environment of bidirectional line-switched rings or shared protection optical (wavelength division multiplexing) rings. The work originated in response to user requests for SONET service paths with unavailabilities under 30 s/year. A number of schemes for redundant routing and ring interconnection are considered as options to meet such a demanding target in the most economic way. An analytical framework for comparison of various provisioning schemes allows a "cost effectiveness" assessment of four high-performance alternatives, in terms of total resource investment and the corresponding service unavailability relative to a single-fed path construction. The logical models of cost and availability can be used in a variety of SONET or optical-ring transport planning studies or perhaps in future automated provisioning tools. An important finding is that while the availability benefit of dual-ring interconnection is high in metro-ring networks, the availability of paths through long-haul ring networks may be relatively poor due to lower limits from two-failure intra-ring combinations.