PROTECTION SWITCHING MECHANISM IN THE DX

The DX aggregate protection switching follows the 2-Fiber Bidirectional Line Switched
Ring (BLSR) mechanism.

2-FIBER BLSR

G2
G1
NE- A NE- B
G2 G1

G1 G2
NE- D NE- C
G2 G1

In the 2-Fiber BLSR, the total bandwidth of fiber is divided into two groups. The first
group acts as the working channel carrying the normal (working) traffic while the second
group is meant for protection traffic. This second group carries traffic only when there is
a protection switch active in the ring.

In the case of a DX NE with an STM64 capacity, the STM channels 1 to 32 form the
working group, while the channels 33 to 64 form the protection group. In the above
diagram, the blue color represents the working group and the red color represents the
protection group. A pair of red and blue lines represents one fiber carrying traffic in one
direction.

Total number of STM channels: 64

Working channels: 1-32
Protection channels: 33-64

There are two CPGs (Circuit Pack Group) in each NE, which form a protection pair. In a
protection pair, when there is a failure on one CP (Circuit Pack), the working traffic of
this CP is carried by the protection group of the other. For example, when there is a
problem on the CP G1, the traffic from working channel 1 of G1 is moved to the
protection channel 33 of G2. Similarly all the channels from 2 to 32 of G1 are moved to
the respective protection channels, 34 to 64 of G2. It is to be noted that, in any case of
failure, all these channels are bridged and switched as a group and never as individual
units.

The diagrams below show the traffic path of a connection from NE A to NE C under
normal conditions and under conditions of a fiber cut.

G G
G G
2 2
1 1
G NE- A NE- B G G NE- A NE- B G
2 1 2 1

G G G G
1 2 1 2
NE- D G G NE- C NE- D G G NE- C
2 1 2 1

The blue dotted lines show the traffic in the working channels, while the red dotted lines
show the traffic in the protection channels.

A protection switch can result due to one of the following causes:

1. Line conditions like fiber cut, signal fail, signal degrade etc
2. Equipment failures
3. User initiated switches like manual switch, forced switch

The protection switches initiated by conditions 1 and 2 are referred to as auto switches.

PROTECTION SWITHING HIERARCHY

The priority hierarchy of the switch requests, from highest to lowest, is as follows:
1 lockout of protection - span; signal failure on a TX or RX line
2 lockout of working - ring
3 forced ring switch
4 signal degradation on a TX or RX line
5 manual ring switch
6 wait to restore
7 ring exerciser

When a switch request is initiated while another switch request is already active, the
higher-priority request overrides the lower-priority request and:
• If the lower-priority request is user-initiated and is the earlier request, it is cleared
• If the lower-priority request is user-initiated and is the new request, it is denied
• If the lower-priority request is an automatic switch request, it is set to pending
Note: Pending indicates that the automatic switch occurs as soon as all higher priority
requests are cleared.
A switch request is cleared when one of the following conditions is met:
• The condition that initiated the request is removed (as in the case of an automatic
switch)
• The user release the request (as in the case of a lockout, forced switch or manual switch
in revertive mode)
• A higher-priority switch request overrides it (as in the case of a forced switch or manual
switch)

Wait To Restore:
When the conditions resulting in auto switches clear, the ring enters into a Wait to
Restore (WTR) state, where the ring is held in the protection switched state for a pre-
configured period (0-12 minutes, infinity) before returning to idle state.

PROTECTION OSCILLATION CONTROL

There are two different protection oscillation control features on the OPTera
Connect DX network element:
• signal failure (SF) throttle protection oscillation control
• Wait-to-restore (WTR) protection oscillation control

SF THROTTLE PROTECTION OSCILLATION CONTROL

SF throttle protection oscillation control applies to STM-64 facilities only. SF throttle
protection oscillation control provides short term oscillation control on one or both
(working and protection) members of a protection group. The number of signal failure
toggling conditions is monitored for 12 seconds. If three or more signal failures occur in
this 12 second interval, a signal failure condition is latched for a set time interval. If the
toggling continues, the latched SF condition is extended until a set time interval is clear
of oscillations.

The WTR protection oscillation control is available only on the tributary cards (STM 1,
4, 16) and not on the aggregate (STM64) cards.

DOUBLE FAILURE SCENARIO

SCENARIO-1
When there are failures in more than one span, each CP facing the failure tries to protect
the traffic by initiating a protection switch.
 Traffic bridged
and switched;
Protection AIS injected for
switch fail connection 1;
traffic squelched
1 on G1/G2
alarm
1
G G
G G
2 2
1 NE- 1 NE-
G NE- A B G G NE- A B G
2 1 2 1

AIS
1 dropped
G G G G
1 NE- NE- 2 1 NE- NE- 2 here
D G G C D G G CNE- 1
2 1 2 1 C

Traffic bridged
and switched

In the above diagram, NE A faces line problems on either direction and raises an auto-
switch request on either direction. The other NEs raising switch requests are NE-B G2
and NE-D G2. The CP NE-B G2 bridges and switches for the switch request on G1, NE-
D G2 bridges and switches for the switch request on G1. However the NE-A does not do
any bridging and switching, for both the CPs have switch requests and cannot switch for
the other CP’s switch request. However this NE-A raises a “Protection switch fail” alarm
to indicate the failure of the protection switch. NE-B G2 and NE-A G1 show the “Ring
protection switch complete” alarm.

In addition to this, any traffic added/dropped at NE-A is replaced with AIS by NE-B and
NE-D and they raise a “Traffic squelched” alarm to indicate a traffic loss in the ring. (In
the above diagram the “traffic squelched” alarm is shown only against NE-B in relation
to the sample connection shown.)

It is to be noted that none of the protection switches on ring 1-1, escalated to Nortel,
match with this scenario. The “Protection switch fail” alarm was not noted in any of the
cases.

SCENARIO 2
 Traffic bridged
Traffic bridged and switched.
and switched. Traffic
Traffic squelched
squelched alarm.
alarm. 1

G2
G1
NE- A NE- B
G2 G1

1 AIS dropped
G1 G2 here
NE- D NE- C
G2 G1

Traffic bridged Traffic bridged

and switched. and switched.
Traffic squelched Traffic squelched
alarm. alarm.

This is a case of double failure but in non-adjacent spans unlike the previous scenario. In
the above diagram, the NE-A G2, NE-D G1, NE-B G1 and NE-C G2 raise switch
requests. NE-A G1 bridges and switches for NE-A G2, NE-B G2 bridges and switches
for NE-B G1, NE-C G1 bridges and switches for NE-C G2 and NE-D G2 bridges and
switches for NE-D G1.

All protection switch requests are catered to by the mate CPs and hence there is no
“Protection switch fail”. However all traffic paths between A, B to C, D and vice versa
are unavailable and hence any traffic from A, B to C, D is lost (squelched). Traffic
squelched alarm is seen on NE-A G2, NE-B G1, NE-C G2 and NE-D G1.

“Protection switch complete” alarm is seen on NE-A G2, NE-B G1, NE-C G2 and NE-D
G1.

The “Traffic squelched” alarm was not seen in any of the cases of protection switching
on ring 1-1 escalated to Nortel by Reliance.

EXPLANATION OF THE RELIANCE RING 1-1 FAILURE

PROTECTION SWITCHES ON RING 1-1

The protection switches observed in the ring 1-1 over a considerable period of time are
due the varying Optical Return Loss (ORL). This ORL fluctuation was seen on multiple
spans, leading to protection switches on different spans of ring 1-1.

However, in all those cases analyzed by Nortel Networks, it was observed that the
failures on the different spans always alternated with each other and never overlapped. It
was always a case of single failure and not a double failure.

SF THROTTLING IN RING 1-1

The SF throttling effect takes place when there 3 or more line faults on one CP within a
period of 12 seconds. The SF throttling is notified to the user by a “Lock on oscillation
control active” alarm.

Analysis of available logs show that the line conditions on the DX caused by ORL
fluctuations in the LH has a average frequency of 3 line faults per minute. This was not
sufficient to trigger the SF throttling.

However whenever the frequency was 3 or more per 12 seconds, the SF throttling is seen
to have become active on the ring 1-1. Nortel has observed this SF throttling 2 instances
of all cases analyzed.