Reliable path provisioning in the presence of multiple correlated failures

It has been shown that multiple, correlated failures severely impair telecommunications networks inducing more damage than independent failures. In this paper we present a simple path provisioning scheme, which offers maximal reliability to networks affected by multiple, correlated failures. The scheme characterizes correlated failures, which are modeled using the concept of probabilistic shared-risk groups, and assigns risks to each network link. Next, the most reliable path is computed minimizing the end-to-end risk. Results based on metrics such as protection failure rate and bandwidth blocking rate show the efficiency of the provisioning scheme.