Self-healing ring networks: gateway to public information networking

Self-healing networks are addressed from the viewpoint of enabling the evolution to a modern public information network through self-healing capabilities and the associated network architectures. The term digital city is used for the overall plan for the implementation and transition to a public information network. Public information networking refers to the future network infrastructure that will provide access, transport, and interconnectivity for voice, data, image, and broadband communications in a fault-tolerant, self-healing public network. The various aspects of digital city, including the marketplace assessment, network functional characteristics, physical network architecture, implications for the public network, and implementation strategies, are examined.<>