GMPLS-based multidomain restoration: analysis, strategies, policies and experimental assessment

Abstract

A connection spanning, for example, several countries crosses multiple optical backbone networks, each one controlled by different administrators or operators. In this context, the interworking of these networks is thus necessary to set up end-to-end optical connections. A key issue when delivering such optical services is the use of efficient and fast restoration strategies to recover a connection disruption. To this end, there are several issues and policies that a network operator should address, such as interdomain failure information exchange and the point of repair (PoR) placement problem. Upon a failure’s occurrence, exchanging interdomain failure information results is essential to attain both an efficient use of the network resources (i.e., wavelength channels) and a fast restoration time. In this regard, within the GMPLS (Generalized Multi-Protocol Label Switching) framework, interdomain information exchange remains unstandardized. Three network operator policies are proposed to yield different restoration mechanisms according to different interdomain failure exchanges. Additionally, three PoR strategies are pointed out and are qualitatively compared. Finally, selected policies and restoration strategies are experimentally validated and compared in terms of the restoration time. Experiments have been carried out over a multidomain optical network infrastructure connecting the GMPLS-based control planes of the UPC CARISMA and the CTTC ADRENALINE test beds.