A tree-based algorithm for protection/restoration in optical mesh networks

This paper presents a novel link protection and restoration method in optical mesh networks. Our method is based on the idea of a "hierarchical protection tree", which provides hierarchical layering of the network. We define a special spanning tree on which the links are arranged in a hierarchical form based on link capacity. In a hierarchical tree, the connection between every node and its parent has a larger bandwidth than the link between the same node and its children. We explain in detail the applicability of this idea in link protection and restoration in mesh networks, show the advantages of this technique in terms of scalability and network maintenance, and present an algorithm to form the hierarchical tree in a distributed way. We further use network simulation to compare the technique to other mesh network restoration methods based on scalability, restorability and required spare bandwidth.