An Innovative Approach for the Reliability Assessment of Large Undersea Optical Ring Networks

This paper demonstrates the use of a new extended hybrid analytical and simulation methodology to quantify the reliabiliy of ring networks using various network elements and protection schemes. The reliability of a ring network is assessed from two persepctives, namely, the Ring Intra-connectivity perspective and the Ring Inter-connectivity perspective. Based on these two perspectives, four new reliability metrics are introduced, which provide valuable reliability information for the design and assessment of ring networks. These metrics provide a means for the trade-off between the level of reliability and the cost of providing that level of reliability.