Fault detection and path performance monitoring in meshed all-optical networks

Fault detection is critical for all-optical networks (AON). This paper introduces the concept of monitoring cycles and proposes a mechanism for fault detection and path performance monitoring based on decomposing AON into monitoring cycles. Two monitoring cycle finding algorithms are developed: heuristic depth first searching (HDFS) and shortest path Eulerian matching (SPEM). The two algorithms are compared in terms of wavelength overhead in nodes and links. The comparison results are obtained for four typical networks, including NSFNET, ARPA2, SmallNet and Bellcore. It is shown that the proposed fault detection mechanism based on monitoring cycles is effective and cost efficient.