Building WDM wide area resilient transport network from 4-node semi-mesh and mesh sub-networks

This paper deals with optical transport network design using wavelength division multiplexing (WDM) facilities. It proposes a method for building networks from sub-network combinations. Two types of 4-node sub-networks and their properties are presented. For each sub-network, any fiber break can be recovered using re-routing paths. A European network set-up illustrates the method capabilities. The network has 19 nodes connected through 39 links distributed within 9 semi-mesh sub-networks. Comparison is made between local and non-local re-routing and between channel capacities of 2.5 and 10 Gb/s. The use of wavelength converters is also investigated. Advantages and drawbacks of different solutions are given with emphasis on fiber length and optical cross-connect size