Cost-performance comparison between optical and MPLS-based resilience

In this paper we discuss the scope for introducing resilience in the optical layer. In particular we present a scenario analysis of a multilayer network where a range of optical and MPLS-based resilience solutions are mutually compared and the effect is quantified as a function of traffic demand and network size. Our results show that optical resilience becomes more cost-efficient than MPLS-based resilience when the end-to-end traffic demand corresponds to roughly the capacity of one optical channel (10 Gbit/s channels are assumed) - and increasingly so for higher traffic demand beyond this point. The exact cross-over point shifts to lower values with increasing network size, and to higher values with increasing number of QoS classes in the optical layer. The consequence with respect to technology strategy is discussed.