Preconfiguring IP-over-Optical Networks to Handle Router Failures and Unpredictable Traffic

We consider the realization of traffic-oblivious routing in IP-over-optical networks where routers are interconnected over a switched optical backbone. The traffic-oblivious routing we consider is a scheme where incoming traffic is first distributed in a preset manner to a set of intermediate nodes. The traffic is then routed from the intermediate nodes to the final destination. This splitting of the routing into two phases simplifies network configuration significantly. In implementing this scheme, the first and second phase paths are realized at the optical layer with router packet grooming at a single intermediate node only. Given this unreliability of routers, we consider how two-phase routing in IP-over-optical networks can be made resilient against router node failures. We propose two different schemes for provisioning the optical layer to handle router node failures-one that is failure node independent and static, and the other that is failure node dependent and dynamic We develop linear programming formulations for both schemes and a fast combinatorial algorithm for the second scheme so as to maximize network throughput. In each case, we determine (i) the optimal distribution of traffic to various intermediate routers for both normal (no-failure) and failure conditions, and (ii) provisioning of optical layer circuits to provide the needed inter-router links. We evaluate the performance of the two router failure protection schemes and compare it with that of unprotected routing.