DISTRIBUTED RESTORATION IN TELECOMMUNICATIONS NETWORKS

Self-healing networks, based on distributed restoration protocols oper ated in synchronous digital hierarchy (SDH) transport networks, have b een investigated in recent years to improve network resilience and cus tomer-perceived service availability. They offer several important fea tures including sub-second network restoration based on the exact netw ork configuration at the time of failure, automatic adaptability as th e network grows, and operation without the requirement of a centralise d operations and maintenance centre. This paper presents a description of the operation of distributed restoration algorithms, results of si mulations and strategies for deployment. A heuristic for designing net works to take advantage of these techniques is also described, and the applicability of distributed algorithms to other areas of network man agement is discussed.