Self-fault isolation in transparent p-cycle networks: p-cycles as their own m-cycles

Span protection has advantages in speed, locality of action and simplicity but requires that the failed span be located in real time. Recent work proposed a novel type of rapid fault-localization via monitoring cycles (m-cycles). Span-protecting structures (e.g. p-cycles) are designed and operated separately from the monitoring cycles in this architecture. We investigate whether it is feasible to design a p-cycle network such that the set of p-cycles used for protection could also serve as a set of fault localizing m-cycles. The main contribution is to show that this can be achieved with the same localization effectiveness as separately designed w-cycle solutions at little or no extra cost.