Shared protection method and apparatus for reconfigurable optical add-drop multiplexer (roadm) based mesh networks

摘要

Example embodiments of a method and corresponding apparatus for sharing protection resources in a reconfigurable optical add-drop multiplexer (ROADM) based mesh network are presented. The use of dedicated 1+1 methodologies for protection in a mesh network is reliable, but requires a large amount of equipment redundancy, as well as a large associated cost. According to the embodiments of the present method and apparatus, the total number of protection transponders needed to support single failures in a mesh network is reduced by implementing a preconfigured protection cycle (p-cycle) in the mesh network and configuring nodes along the p-cycle to share protection transponders. Accordingly, the embodiments of the present method and apparatus allow for reliable protection against single failures while lessening the amount of equipment redundancy and reducing the associated cost.

主权项

1. A network node in a mesh network, comprising:
at least two degrees having working transponders, at least one of the degrees having protection transponders connected to at least one respective adjacent node along a preconfigured protection cycle in the mesh network, the protection transponders being of a number at least equal to the number of working transponders needing support in an event of a failure relating to any one of the degrees; a switch fabric electronically disposed between the working and protection transponders to switch traffic simultaneously from working transponders of a given degree to protection transponders of multiple other degrees associated with at least two protection paths of the preconfigured protection cycle, in an event of a failure relating to the given degree; and a control plane to configure the switch fabric to switch traffic simultaneously from the working transponders of the given degree to the protection transponders of the multiple other degrees in the event of the failure relating to the given degree.