Survivable Passive Access Network (SPAN) - art. no. 638707

Wavelength Division Multiplexed based Passive Optical Networks (WDM-PON) are subjected to wide variety of incidental failures. It is preferred in WDM-PONs to provide fault management (survivability) at link layer level. In this paper, our objective is to determine the factors, which can increase the scope of survivability at link layer, not available currently. We propose a cost-effective recovery mechanism, called "Survivable Passive Access Network" (SPAN). SPAN is a multi-level protection scheme that has potential to be highly efficient and scaleable in terms of performance budget. BER performance and power penalty factors remain acceptable while switching traffic from normal path to protection path in case of failure.