OPN09-03: GMPLS Signaling Feedback for Encompassing Physical Impairments in Transparent Optical Networks

Next generation GMPLS networks will be characterized by domains of transparency, in which the end-to-end optical signal quality has to be guaranteed. Currently GMPLS does not take into account the evaluation of physical impairments. Thus just limited size domains of transparency, where physical impairments can be neglected, are practically achievable. This study utilizes GMPLS signaling protocol extensions to encompass the optical layer physical impairments. The proposed approach allows to detect during the signaling phase whether lightpaths cannot be set up because of unacceptable optical signal quality. In this case successive set up attempts are performed, selecting the alternative routes with three schemes which exploit the feedback information of the signaling messages. Numerical results show that the proposed extensions are able to significantly decrease the lightpath blocking probability due to physical impairments in both static and dynamic conditions.