Maximizing Optical Inter-DC Emergency Backup Reliability in Unpredictable Disasters

The emergency backup problem of optical inter-datacenter (inter-DC) networks is widely studied to avoid data loss caused by disasters. However, when unpredictable disasters such as earthquakes and large-scale power outages attack the optical inter-DC network, it is impossible to predict the network damage under a discrete time domain through the early warning system (EWS). Designing a reliable emergency backup scheme is becoming a key challenge in the optical inter-DC network in unpredictable disasters. Previous work only optimized emergency backup in the optical inter-DC networks in predictable disasters, which would lead to the unreliability of emergency backup of the optical inter-DC networks in unpredictable disasters. Therefore, this work proposes a reliable emergency backup method for the optical inter-DC networks in unpredictable disasters. Firstly, the disaster probability propagation model of the optical inter-DC network in unpredictable disasters is established based on the Markov process to quantify the network damage under a discrete time domain and install the emergency backup reliability problem. Next, constructing a time-sensitive variable time extension network (TS-VTEN) transforms the dynamic emergency backup reliability problem into a static flow problem. Finally, the problem is expressed as integer linear programming (ILP). The proposed ILP method outperforms state-of-the-art emergency backup methods by simultaneously achieving high reliability and time efficiency.