Automatic protection switching for link failures in optical networks with bi-directional links

This paper proposes a methodology for performing automatic protection switching (APS) for link failures in optical networks with arbitrary topologies and bi-directional links. In the scenario considered, the protection fibers' layout and the protection switches' set-up is implemented in non-real time, during the set-up of the network. When a fiber link fails, the connections that use that link are automatically restored and their signals are routed to their original destination using the protection fibers and protection switches. Depending on the position of the link failures multiple faults can be restored simultaneously.