A new reconfiguration protocol for mesh optical networks

Resource efficiency is a key concern in dynamic wavelength-routing networks. In particular, link failure events can yield notable inefficiencies as both failed connections and newly-arriving connections can be routed over less efficient routes. It is here that network reconfiguration after fault repair can yield substantial gains. To study the benefits of this approach, we propose a novel distributed token-based approach to coordinate post-repair reconfiguration. The goal is to minimize overall contention between simultaneous re-routing attempts over the same set of resources. Our findings confirm that the proposed scheme attains good gains in resource efficiency and amenable reconfiguration timescales.