Support for incident management in optical networks through critical points identification

Abstract

In incident management for optical networks, when a fault or event occurs, a network element will often send a notification, inthe form of an “alarm”, to operators and managers. Alarms contain valuable information to support the fault management processat the operating level, because it is a persistent indication of a fault. Alarms usually clear only with the triggering of the solutionfor its cause. To mitigate business risks related to faults in optical networks, service managers need to estimate the impact of anetwork fault in relation to business needs. In optical networks, identifying redundancy points of high-impact on the network isstill a challenge for managers. They often rely on their own experience to prioritize points that possibly need to have redundancy inthose networks. This work presents a simulation model capable of locating suitable points for the application of asset redundancyto reduce optical network disruptions, based on business risk. The model is implemented in a software tool and then used in a casestudy of two reference networks, whose elements may fail according to a realistic failure scenario. Results of the study allow facevalidity with preliminary evidence that the model is useful to support incident management in optical networks.