Exploiting enhanced reliability features in MPLS traffic engineered optical speed networks

The demand for multimedia applications along with rapid growth, the need for quality of service, reliability, and resilience have made traffic engineering an essential consideration in the design and operation of large public Internet backbone networks. In order for carriers to minimize the financial impact of inevitable link and network component failures, backbone protection solutions must be implemented which can rapidly reroute traffic across redundant links to minimize/eliminate service disruption. This paper details traffic engineering strategies for carriers to provide rapid, costeffective and physical layer independent mechanisms, based on the latest MPLS traffic-engineering features to protect against link failures in the network core. Such mechanisms have been experimentally investigated, from the performance point of view, on a state-of-the-art high performance optical network, to evaluate how they can improve the reliability and resilience of today's Internet, and identify opportunities for further improvement, and development of new fault-recovery mechanisms for future networks. Key-Words: MPLS, Traffic Engineering, Reliability, Resilience, Fast Reroute