Delayed Squeezed Dedicated Path Protection in Spectrally-Spatially Flexible Optical Networks

Spectrally-spatially flexible optical networks (SSFONs) are proposed as a scalable solution to satisfy future capacity requirements in backbone optical networks. With the growing heterogeneity of network services, various protection mechanisms can be applied against network failures. SS-FONs are built on top of flex-grid, allowing for squeezed protection mechanism where the fraction of bandwidth is protected. Meanwhile, particular network request can serve non-time-crucial content, and their protected traffic can be postponed using assistive storage. In this work, we propose a novel protection approach, namely, delayed squeezed dedicated path protection (DSDPP), where protected requests, instead of transmitting squeezed bandwidth on the backup path, are transmitting full bandwidth but during a shorter period than the primary request. In more detail, the overall volume of backup requests in DSDPP matches the volume of conventionally squeezed requests. According to the conducted experiments, DSDPP decreases bandwidth blocking probability on average by around 16.9% when compared to squeezed dedicated path protection (SDPP).