Optical Network Security: Countermeasures in View of Channel Attacks

The WDM next generation optical network, in addition to link protection and restoration, will exhibit fast channel protection and service restoration strategies. As a consequence, how fast a failure or a severe degradation is detected will determine the amount of information lost if one considers that each WDM channel transports 10 Gbps or more. In addition to this, the next generation optical network will be vulnerable to malicious attacks to eavesdrop, mimic the source or cause denial of service. In this paper we present a method and a strategy that, in conjunction with a fast and intelligent proactive protocol, can be used to perform fast channel self-restoration, in view of degradations/failures, or countermeasures in view of malicious channel attacks