Cost optimization method for multiple attack localization and identification in all-optical networks

In emerging all-optical networks, efficient monitoring and estimation of signal quality along a lightpath are of highest interest because of their importance in diagnosing and assessing the overall health of the network. This is because transmission in these networks is limited by a number of effects such as optical crosstalk and amplified spontaneous emission. In particular, crosstalk is additive and can be exploited to perform service disruption attacks upon the whole network. Since these attacks can spread rapidly through the network, causing additional awkward failures and triggering multiple undesirable alarms, they must be detected and identified at any point in the network where they may occur. Due to transparency, this requires particularly the availability of expert diagnostic techniques to measure and control the smallest granular component, the wavelength channel. However, to monitor all wavelengths at several detection points in a node is likely to be a very expensive solution. In this paper we show that monitoring information for any established lightpath on the output side of each optical cross-connect node, is sufficient to correlate additional monitoring information that can be very useful for localizing multiple attacks and identifying their natures in all-optical networks.