Optical switch failure protection in mesh networks with arbitrary non-planar architectures

This paper presents a general methodology for protecting a network with an arbitrary non-planar architecture from a network switch failure. The protection procedure involves identifying a family of cycles with special characteristics, called protection cycles, and grouping and interconnecting these cycles in a way that ensures failure restoration for at least one of the active connections passing through the failed network switch. The protection process proposed is fast, distributed and autonomous and does not rely on a central manager or a centralized database