A novel data channel fault detection mechanism in optical burst switching networks

Fault detection in optical burst switching (OBS) networks will be a challenging task in the future. A novel mechanism based on probe burst (PB) and a new key concept is proposed to detect faults of OBS networks by sampling the health of data channels, which solve the difficulty of optical monitoring schemes while keeps the transparency of data network to Internet protocol (IP) packets. It takes full advantage of the characteristics of OBS, including architecture and signalling scheme, and introduces the excellent performances of single-hop-test used in electrical communication networks into OBS environment while avoids the shortcoming that any optical burst must undergo an optical-electric-optical (OEO) conversion. Well designed PB can provide exact criterion for judging whether protection/restoration should be excuted according to hard or soft fault identification.