Adaptive time- and location-aware routing in telecom mesh networks

In telecom mesh networks, connections can be provisioned considering their availability requirements. A connection´s availability can be estimated based on the links´ statistical availability (e.g., depending on historical failure occurrences and repair times).The authors remark that the actual failure statistics depend on (i) when and (ii) where a connection is routed (as failure rates throughout the year and in different locations may be different). Moreover, the failure rate is not homogeneous along a link and a detailed time- and location-aware availability calculation is required. Most link failures are caused by dig-ups, thus there is a direct relationship between construction works, which require excavations, and link failures. So, the probability of a link failure at a certain location depends on (i) the time/day when dig-up works are performed and (ii) population of the location (assuming that the more crowded the location is, the more constructions occur). By exploiting the time- and location-dependent failure information, the authors investigate a novel adaptive time- and location-aware routing scheme, which provisions connections on highly available paths depending on a connection´s duration and availability requirements. The authors´ approach shows significant upgrade-cost savings, while satisfying the service requirements, compared with traditional approaches.