Introducing OMS protection in GMPLS-based optical ring networks

Legacy ring-based networks have been deployed in conjunction with SONET/SDH technology to provide survivability to transport networks, and they achieve service recovery within 50 ms after fault detection. Current generalized multiprotocol label switching (GMPLS)-controlled optical transport networks need efficient resilience mechanisms to allow recovery times equivalent to those granted by SONET/SDH networks. In this paper, dedicated and shared optical multiplex section (OMS) protection systems are proposed. Both solutions consist of a mechanism based on extensions of the GMPLS link management protocol (LMP) to properly manage the protection actions, and both utilize a new reconfigurable optical add/drop multiplexer (ROADM) design to support the protection schemes. The performance of both solutions has been experimentally evaluated.