Abstract

Network survivability is an important issue in wavelength division multiplexed (WDM) optical networks where hundreds of 10/40 Gbps channels are multiplexed in a single fiber.¹ Many restoration methods provide guaranteed restoration for any single-link failure which is the most common failure mode in high-speed networks. In this paper, we present the robustness issue of link restoration methods; the ability to recover from multiple-link failures. The robustness of a restoration method is defined as the average ratio of the restored channels to the failed channels for all multiple-link failure cases. In our discussion, only two-link failures are considered since more than two-link failures are very rare cases in practical networks.

© 2002 Optical Society of America