Fault Recovery in Carrier Ethernet, Optical and GMPLS Networks

The trend in the current multiple technology network environment is to reduce the number of network technology layers and form a dual layer, packet over circuit architecture. Carrier Ethernet (for the packet layer), optical networks (for the circuit layer) and GMPLS, are dominant enablers in this scenario. Survivability and robustness will be of critical role for the accomplishment of a transport class of network. This paper describes the fault recovery functionalities in optical, Carrier Ethernet and GMPLS networks, considering the role of GMPLS in each scenario. We overview the currently standardized schemes and published research, evaluate different cases and comment on unresolved issues and required extensions.