Survivable international networks: Architecture and dimensioning

A novel survivable network design method is presented for multicarrier international networks. In this method, dynamic capacity reconfiguration is proposed at the transport layer in order to more efficiently and flexibly utilize network capacity. Dynamic capacity reconfiguration allows the load between country pairs to use varying amounts of capacity on different routes and with different owners during the day. This can occur because peak loads occur at different times between many country pairs. The mathematical formulation of the problem is based on a linear program where the objective is to minimize the cost of transport capacity given that it can be dynamically reconfigured. To make the network survivable, the formulation allows capacity to be reserved on alternate facility routes to carry a specified fraction of the load. Numerical results with various country compositions demonstrate that up to 30% cost savings with respect to current network design practices are possible