Power impairment aware methodology with segment based shared path protection in survivable optical packet switched networks

In the present generation optical networks, power economy and impairment awareness for the increased survivability become crucial. On the other hand, there is a trade - off exists between power economy and impairment awareness. To achieve power economy, transparency is introduced in optical networks. Moreover, optical transparency lacks in regeneration of optical signal. This results in an accumulation of noise signal due to the linear and nonlinear impairments of optical media. Furthermore, to overcome the effects of impairments, transmitted power is increased which increases the power cost of the network. Hence, the present paper gives a novel solution which incorporates impairments awareness in the network by enhancing the control plane of the network without increasing the power cost and complexity. This is achieved by Impairment Aware Routing and Wavelength Assignment (IA - RWA) to selective switching off of impaired light paths, which further increases the power economy. We use sleep mode strategy to achieve minimal power cost with SBSPP and saved power is further used in a contention resolution strategy to enhance the data rate.