Comparison of resilience mechanisms for dynamic services in intelligent optical networks

We assume intelligent optical networks (ION) to be the next step on the transport network evolution path. ION is an acronym for an optical network provided with a control plane (distributed routing and signaling functions for dynamic connection configurations), such as GMPLS and ASON. lONs enable fast service provisioning and make efficient use of network capacity by dynamically allocating resources to services on demand. Furthermore, the distributed control functions allow flexible and cost efficient resilience schemes in lONs. In the recent past, we have observed increasingly dynamic traffic and service conditions leading to frequent transport network reconfigurations. In this paper, we compare the performance of different resilience mechanisms, namely dedicated path protection, shared path protection, shared link protection, p-cycles, and restoration, protecting dynamic services.