Algorithm for FIPP p-cycle Path Protection in Flexgrid Networks

In optical networks, faults in links and nodes cause massive loss of data even if for short periods. Therefore, protection techniques have been developed to cope with failures. Among these techniques, p-cycle is very attractive since it provides ring-like speed of restoration in mesh topologies. In recent years, the technology of flexgrid networks has emerged as a solution for dealing with the diversity of bandwidth demands of network applications. However, very few investigations have been proposed for path protection in flexgrid networks. This paper introduces a novel algorithm to provide Failure-independent path protecting p-cycle for path protection in flexgrid networks. The proposed algorithm is compared to two other algorithms in the literature. Results indicate that the 100% protection for single failures can be provided by the proposed algorithm with low overhead to networks with high node connectivity.