BFD-based failure detection and localization in IP over OBS/WDM multilayer network

Optical burst switching (OBS), which takes advantage of both high capacity of optical fiber and sophisticated control of electronics, has been considered as a promising paradigm for the modern Internet. In this paper, the recovery procedures for IP over OBS/WDM multilayer network are addressed, which focus on the failure detection and failure localization. Bidirectional forwarding detection (BFD) mechanism which provides low-overhead, short-duration detection of failures in the path between adjacent forwarding engines, including the interfaces, data link(s) is introduced for the failure detection and localization in the IP over OBS/WDM multilayer network, especially at the OBS/WDM layer. The unique feature of OBS and the easy-to-implement merit of BFD make it feasible for BFD adopted at OBS/WDM layer. Besides, BFD is a highly cost effective method when compared with traditional methods such as detecting the Loss of Light of each wavelength. Not only the implementation details of BFD-based failure detection for the OBS/WDM layer are demonstrated in this paper, but also how the BFD localizes failures such as fiber failure, link failure and node failure. Moreover, extensive simulations have been done at different scenarios such as single failure and multiple failures. And the numerical results concerning the performance of BFD-based failure detection and localization in terms of failure detection and localization time and BDP lost rate verified the proposed solution. Copyright (c) 2011 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.