A Novel Fast Restoration Mechanism for Optical Burst Switched Networks

Survivability is a critical network design issue for optical networks since even a single failure for a short duration may result in huge data loss due to the large capacity of optical fibers. However, few studies have been done on this issue for optical burst switching (OBS) networks. In this paper, we extend our early work on the fast restoration technique for OBS networks and present a novel fast restoration mechanism based on distributed deflection routing. Compared to other survivability schemes, the proposed mechanism has the advantage of fast and low-overhead fault management process and demonstrates excellent burst blocking performance by balancing the deflected traffic load during the restoration process.