Enhanced Intercycle Switching in p-Cycle Survivability for WDM Networks

The p-cycle is the most promising technique used for the survivability of WDM networks. Relevant studies conducted by eminent researchers in this field have suggested that the reliability of the p-cycle can be enhanced further. In order to address the problem, the authors introduced a concept, namely, intercycle switching (ICS), that reduces the length of the p-cycle restoration segment by exploiting an idle p-cycle. This reduction implies a minimized restored path (end-to-end) length and thus improves the quality and reliability of optical transport networks. Through this paper, the authors show how the effectiveness of the ICS approach can be enhanced by considering the restored path during intercycle switching instead of the p-cycle restoration segment, namely, as enhanced ICS (EICS). Furthermore, the authors worked on the optimal allocation of the candidate p-cycle and idle p-cycle (OPIA) to the working paths to choose the restored path optimally where EICS is more effective.