Protection switching performance in next generation optical transport networks

Sub-50 millisecond protection switching times are embedded in the requirements, tariffs, and practices of carriers such as Verizon. This paper reports on a recent Verizon study of next generation optical transport gear that implements shared mesh protection schemes. We find that such schemes most likely will not perform protection switching in less than 50 milliseconds for even moderate numbers of paths. This paper explains our methodology and findings.