Today's
commercial optical networks provide extremely limited Fault and Attack
Management (FAM) and, although optical networking is one of the fastest
growing areas in networking, even theoretical FAM research in the
optical domain only scratches the surface. We seek to close this gap
by addressing some of the fundamental research issues and building
a simulation toolkit that will incorporate the products of this research
effort. Ultimately, we wish to provide thorough quantitative answers
to questions about the level of resources needed to support modern
FAM.
Our research in optical FAM broadly lies in three areas: modeling
or how to model faults and attacks; algorithms or how to devise methods
for detection and management of faults or attacks; and protocols or
how to implement in a distributed manner the various steps involved
in the management of a particular fault or attack. In
the area of modeling, our research will be driven by questions such
as: is optical fault modeling any different from that of non-optical
networks? How do attack models differ from fault models? How are
coordinated attacks best modeled? What level of network operation
can be abstracted away in a fault or attack model? How can a network
measure and detect denial-of-service attacks? For FAM modeling,
we will build high-level models based on lower-level fault and attack
models at the physical level proposed by others.
In the area
of algorithms, we anticipate providing answers to questions such
as: how should routes be assigned to connections in anticipation
of faults and attacks? Does route assignment in anticipation of
a coordinated attack use significantly more resources? Once an attack
occurs, how long does it take for detecting and localizing it? Can
efficient algorithms for periodic fault or attack detection be designed?
In the area
of protocols, we take up the practical issue of integrating our
algorithms into a standard. In particular, at the time of a fault
or attack, procedures for recovery need to be reliably implemented
as protocols.
Finally, we integrate our contributions in the above three areas
of modeling, algorithms and protocols by incorporating our solutions
into a simulator. The idea is that a user will be able to select
a fault or attack model from a menu of several, will be able to
select a combination of algorithms from a menu of several, and be
able to evaluate the performance by running the simulator. We will
also make is easy for independent third-parties to integrate their
own modules for testing and comparison. To build this simulator,
we will leverage existing simulation technology and visibility by
using the MERLIN optical network simulator developed at the National
Institute of Standards and Technology. Since MERLIN follows an open
architecture so that various modules are plug-ins, we anticipate
that, by adding an "open" FAM section in MERLIN, other
researchers can propose and test algorithms in addition to our own.
Top
|
