1+N Network Protection for Mesh Networks: Network Coding-Based Protection Using P-Cycles

p-Cycles have been proposed for pre-provisioned 1:N protection in optical mesh networks. Although the protection circuits are pre-configured, the detection of failures and the rerouting of traffic can be a time consuming operation. Another survivable mode of operation is the 1+1 protection mode, in which a signal is transmitted to the destination on two link disjoint circuits, hence recovery from failures is expeditious. However, this requires a large number of protection circuits. In this paper, the authors introduce a new concept in protection: 1+N protection, in which a p-Cycle, similar to FIPP p-cycles, can be used to protect a number of bidirectional connections, which are mutually link disjoint, and also link disjoint from all links of the p-Cycle.