Fault aware routing algorithm to enhance network resiliency & achieve load balancing in Hybrid Wireless Optical Broadband Access Network

Abstract

Ever increasing demand for more bandwidth over the internet has lead to the development of many new technologies and architectures. Among these, Hybrid of Wireless and Optical networks have become increasingly important because of their “mobility” and “flexibility” in the wireless part and “robustness” and “high capacity” in the wired part. Hybrid Wireless Optical Broadband Access Network (WOBAN) is such an architecture comprising best of both the worlds. Despite being advantageous, this multi domain architecture can experience many failure scenarios both in the wired and wireless parts. These failures may range from a wireless router failure to the cut in the fiber resulting in the denial of services to the end user. In this research work we attempted to solve this issue through a multipath routing algorithm so that once a failure is detected; the traffic is instantly routed through other active paths. Simulation results have shown improved path delays and reduced packet loss as compared to existing algorithms. The improvement is achieved by employing disjoint routing paths and using a routing metric based on the network topology and media i.e. expected transmission count.