Fault management extensions in support of generalized MPLS

Network management is an indispensable constituent of communication systems since it is responsible for ensuring the secure and continuous functioning of any network. An integral part of any management system is fault management, which is responsible for detecting failures and isolating failed components. The key functions of fault management include fault detection, fault localization, and fault notification. They also include protection and restoration services in the event of transmission failure of links and nodes. In this paper, we propose an extension for fault management in support of the emerging Generalized Multi-Protocol Label Switching framework for distributed control of optical networks.