A protocol for fast recovery on mesh networks using a multi-topology approach

The main goal of this paper is to describe the basic functionalities of the MRTP (Multi-Topology Recovery Protocol) which is a network protocol that provides protection and a fast recovery mechanism, recovering at few milliseconds, for node and link failure in structured mesh networks using pre-processing and multi-topology approach. The protocol was designed considering the state-of-the-art recovery and protection techniques, which will be briefly described throughout this document. One of those techniques, called Resilience Routing Layer, is used as the basic algorithm for sub-topology generation. The protocol prototype was tested in a real environment based on virtualization. The experimentation shows that the protocol leads the network to a quick convergence, below few milliseconds, which presents a sensitive improvement in recovery time, if compared to the currently used protocols such as OSPF, RIP and EIRGP. MTRP produces new recovery paths with costs almost as low as the primary ones with the recovery time practically the hardware failure detection time.