Restoration message transfer mechanism and restoration characteristics of double-search self-healing ATM network

The self-healing network is particularly interesting with regard to ATM networks, because the restoration time can be shortened by using the advantages of the ATM network. This paper studies a self-healing ATM network based on virtual path (VP) protection switching. First, a novel self-healing algorithm-the double-search self-healing algorithm-is proposed. It is shown that this algorithm can restore failed bidirectional VPs faster and find alternate VPs more effectively than existing self-healing algorithms. Second, it is shown that the restoration information for self-healing control (SHC) messages must be transferred by specific cells carrying the control and OAM information (Ic&o). Message parameters and a cell format are proposed. Third, evaluation of the restoration characteristics using the proposed self-healing algorithm by computer simulation indicates that good performance against a transmission link failure is obtained even in a large-scale network model with 110 nodes. The results also indicate that the VP group (VPG) method can improve the restoration time without reducing the restoration ratio