Optical ethernet span protection using an XML-based multi protocol framework

Optical Access Networks based on Optical Ethernet (OE) architectures represent a simple and low cost solution for eliminating the bandwidth bottleneck between high speed Local Area Networks, and optical Metropolitan Area Network core. Transparent optical Network Elements (NE), e.g. optical switches, can be successfully introduced in current OE networks to provide an adequate level of resilience and reduce the overall network cost. However network control and management plane must be extended to administrate the optical network elements. This paper shows a hardware and software implementation of a 1:1 optical span protection scheme for OE network based on optical switches triggered by failure detection. Detection is obtained by three different methods based either on hardware or software mechanisms. Link state is updated both at the switch controller and control manager through, respectively, Link Management Protocol (LMP) and Simple Network Management Protocol (SNMP) messaging implemented by a novel Extensible Markup Language (XML) Multi Protocol Framework (XMPF). Experimental results show that a recovery time in the millisecond range can be achieved and network state is correctly synchronized in all the network elements.