Survivability strategies in optical networks

Recent advances in fiber optics technology have enabled extremely high-speed transport of different forms of data, on multiple wavelengths of an optical fiber, using dense wavelength division multiplexing (DWDM). It has now become possible to deploy high-speed, multi-service networks using DWDM technology. As the amount of traffic carried has increased, any single failure can be catastrophic. Survivability becomes indispensable in such networks. Therefore, it is imperative to design networks that can quickly and efficiently recover from failures. Most research to date in survivable optical network design and operation focuses on single link failures, however, the occurrence of multiple-link failures are not uncommon in networks today.