A distributed p-cycle protection scheme in multi-domain optical networks

Providing protection in multi-domain optical networks amounts to ensuring protection for the inter-domain connections. Due to scalability issues, almost all previous studies focused on heuristics. In this study, we propose a large scale optimization ILP model, which allows the exact solution of quite large instances, under the assumption of a distributed network management. The model relies on p-cycles in order to protect the inter-domain links, while FIPP p-cycles are used for the protection in each individual domain, and for the virtual links in between the inter-domain links. Experiments were successfully conducted on a multi-domain network with 5 domains. They include a comparison of bandwidth requirements between the proposed distributed scheme and a centralized scheme.