On the interaction between electronic and optical layer protection

This paper addresses a number issues dealing with the joint design of network protection algorithms at the electronic and optical layers. An important network management problem that arises in the design of protection algorithms for WDM-based networks is the interaction between the protection mechanisms that are offered at the different network layers. For example, how does an IP network behave when it is routed over a WDM network? Or, how does failure localization at the optical layer affect path restoration? We discuss a number of new and important opportunities for the joint design of protection and restoration techniques.