Reliable Network Design for Ethernet Ring Mesh Networks

Abstract

A novel design optimization for reliable networking is investigated in Ethernet ring mesh networks with the ITU-T G.8032 Ethernet Ring Protection Recommendation. Designing an Ethernet ring mesh consisting of multiple rings to achieve the maximum network availability is an NP-complete problem. We show that a graph with vertex connectivity equal to or greater than two is a sufficient condition for designing an Ethernet ring mesh. A novel design rule with an efficient heuristic algorithm is proposed to find a design close to an optimal Ethernet ring mesh in terms of maximum network availability. Compared with an optimal network design algorithm with an exponential enumeration search cost, the heuristic algorithm achieves network availability nearly as high as that of an optimal design at a polynomial cost.