Survivability function - a measure of disaster-based routing performance

The explosive growth of data traffic imposes critical requirements on core network survivability. Developments in wavelength-division multiplexing have strengthened this need. Survivability becomes increasingly crucial, since large traffic volumes are multiplexed onto a single fiber. A single cable cut can affect incredibly large groups of users, leading to catastrophic socioeconomic effects. This paper defines the network survivability function - the probability function of the percentage of total data flow delivered after failure and survivability attributes - the expected percentage of total data flow delivered after failure, the respective p-percentile values, the worst case survivability. Models for finding these survivability measures are described. The main goal in this paper is to investigate the survivability function for typical routing protocols used in the IP networks. Examples of survivability assessment of a typical wide area network employed in Poland illustrate the proposed approach.