Network Coding-based Protection Strategies Against a Single Link Failure in Optical Networks

Abstract: In this paper we develop network protection strategies against a single link failure in optical networks. The motivation behind this work is the fact that $%70$ of all available links in an optical network suffers from a single link failure. In the proposed protection strategies, denoted NPS-I and NPS-II, we deploy network coding and reduced capacity on the working paths to provide a backup protection path that will carry encoded data from all sources. In addition, we provide implementation aspects and how to deploy the proposed strategies in case of an optical network with $n$ disjoint working paths.