Multicast lightpaths
![]() | This article has multiple issues. Please help improve it or discuss these issues on the talk page. (Learn how and when to remove these messages)
|

A multicast session requires a “point-to-multipoint” connection from a source node to multiple destination nodes.[1] The source node is known as the root, and the destination nodes are known as leaves. In the modern era, it is highly important to protect multicast connections in an optical mesh network. Recently, multicast applications have gained popularity as it is extremely important to protect critical sessions against failures such as fiber cuts, hardware faults, and natural disasters. Detailed research information can be found on the Internet.
Multicast Applications
Multicast applications include multimedia, medical imaging, digital audio, HDTV, video conferencing, interactive distance learning, and distributed games.
Multicasting Switch Architecture
In order to support multicasting, the WDM network requires multicast-capable wavelength-routing switches at the network node. These switches are capable of replicating data streams from one input port to multiple output ports.
There are two types of switch architectures that are mostly used.[2]
- The first is an opaque switch architecture which utilizes electronic cross-connects with optical-electrical-optical (OEO) conversion.
- The other is transparent switch architecture which utilizes all optical cross-connects (OXCs).
Multicast Lightpaths Protection
Multicast Lightpaths Protection means immediate response of the network after a failure to switch the traffic on another path.
Dedicated: Resources along the backup path(s) are dedicated for only one connection and are not shared with the backup paths for other connections.
Shared: Resources along a backup path may be shared with other backup paths for other Connections.
Protecting Multicast Sessions

Several protection schemes have been proposed in the literature to protect the multicast connections. The simplest idea to protect the multicast tree from single fiber failure is to compute a link disjoint backup tree. In Fig 2. a multicast session from source node F to destination nodes A,B,C,D and E forms a light tree. F is the root and remaining nodes are leaves. Primary Light-tree is shown in solid lines and (directed-link-disjoint) back up light tree is shown in dotted lines carrying traffic from source node to destinations.[3]
Ring based approach is also proposed to protect multicast session[4]
The segment protection scheme is another way to protect multicast connections.[5] A segment in a multicast tree is defined as the sequence of edges from the source or any splitting node (on a tree) to a leaf node, or, to a downstream splitting node. A destination node is always considered as a segment end node because it is either a leaf node in a tree or a splitting node.
A multicast protection scheme through spanning paths is also one of the key approaches to protecting multicast sessions.[6][7][8][9] A spanning path in a multicast tree is defined as a path from a leaf node to any other leaf node in the light-tree. The scheme derives backup paths for every spanning path in the multicast-tree.
Concept of DBPP and SBPP on multicast connections
Dedicated Backup Path Protection (DBPP) for Multicast connections: Depending on Network Topology Dedicated Backup Path Concept can be applied for multicast traffic. Fig 3 shows a multicast session from source node F to destination nodes A,B,C,D and E forms light tree. Dedicated Backup path Protection scheme can be applied to protect multicast traffic from link failure. This is easy to achieve with one to one protection where the dedicated backup path is already provisioned and traffic is simply switched to it on failure.
![]() |
![]() |
![]() |
Shared Backup Path Protection (SBPP) for Multicast connections: Shared Backup Path Protection technique can be used for multicast connections at the optical layer because of its resource efficiency due to the fact that the backup paths can share wavelength channels on links while their corresponding primary paths are link disjoint. Paths can share links with working paths and protection paths of other leaves In figure 4 FE has Primary Path and FA has primary path. Optical line reserved for both shared protection FE and FA.
Path protection technique for multicast connections (multiple unicast connections):
Key Features | Dedicated Backup Path Protection | Shared Backup Path Protection |
---|---|---|
Reliability | Highly reliable | Less reliable |
Cross Connect | Cross Connect established before failure | Cross Connect established after failure |
Cost | Cost is higher than SBPP | Less than DBPP |
Importance
Protection scheme for multicast connections is important for following reasons:
1. Loss of Connectivity: Network failure such as Fiber cuts in a communication network occur often enough to cause service disruption, and lead to significant information loss in the absence of adequate backup mechanisms.
2. SLA: For the provider it is important to follow SLA and guaranteed service. It is important to protect multicast connections to maintain the SLA.
3. Business Reputation: Network Availability is one of the key aspects of multicasting connections. A company loses money and reputation when its network fails.
See also
Notes
- ^ L. H. Sahasrabuddhe and B. Mukherjee, “Light-trees: Optical multicasting for improved performance in wavelength-routed networks,” IEEE Commun. Mag., vol. 37, pp. 67–73, Feb. 1999.
- ^ N. Singhal and B. Mukherjee, “Protecting multicast sessions in WDM optical mesh networks,” J. Lightwave Technol., vol. 21, Apr. 2003
- ^ N. Singhal and B. Mukherjee, “Protecting multicast sessions in WDM optical mesh networks,” J. Lightwave Technol., vol. 21, Apr. 2003
- ^ C. Boworntummarat, L. Wuttisittikulkij, and S. Segkhoonthod, “Lighttree based Protection Strategies for Multicast Traffic in Transport WDM Mesh Networks with Multi-fiber Systems”, in Proc. IEEE ICC’04, June 2004, vol. 3, pp.1791–1795
- ^ N. Singhal, L. sahasrabuddhe, and B. Mukherjee, “Provisioning of Survivable Multicast Sessions Against Single Link Failures in Optical WDM Mesh Networks”, IEEE/OSA J. of Lightwave Technology, vol. 21, no. 11, pp. 2587–2594, Nov. 2003.
- ^ N. Singhal, C. Ou, and B. Mukherjee, “Shared Protection for Multicast Sessions in Mesh Networks”, in Proc. IEEE OFC’05, pp. 823-825, 2005
- ^ N. Singhal, C. Ou, B. Mukherjee, “Cross-sharing vs. Self-sharing Trees for Protecting Multicast Sessions in Mesh Networks”, J of Computer Networks, vol 50, no. 2, pp. 200-106, Feb. 2006.
- ^ H. Luo, H. Yu, L. Li, and S. Wang, “On Protecting Dynamic Multicast Sessions in Survivable Mesh WDM Networks”, in Proc. OFC’2006
- ^ H. Luo, L. Li, and H. Yu, “Algorithm for Protecting Light-trees in Survivable Mesh Wavelength-division-multiplexing Networks”, J. of Optical Networking, vol. 5, no. 12, pp. 1071–1083, 2006.