Beyond Redundancy: Toward Agile Resilience in Optical Networks to Overcome Unpredictable Disasters

2025-09-28

AI Summary

Traditional optical network resilience mechanisms—relying on static redundancy and pre-planned protection—are increasingly inadequate against unpredictable disasters induced by climate change and geopolitical instability. This paper proposes a novel “agile resilience” paradigm that transcends static defense frameworks by emphasizing dynamic response and cross-operator, cross-optical-layer coordinated reconfiguration. We present the first formally defined and experimentally realized agile resilience architecture deployed on operational systems, integrating rapid system characterization, dynamic optical path reconfiguration, and distributed database migration to enable autonomous end-to-end service restoration within six hours. Experimental validation on a real-world transmission infrastructure demonstrates sub-hour disaster sensing, minute-scale decision-making, and full-chain reconfiguration within six hours. The approach significantly enhances optical networks’ adaptability to unforeseen disruptions and improves recovery efficiency.

Technology Category

• Search and Optimization: Distributed Search
• Planning, Routing, and Scheduling: Optimization of Spatio-temporal Systems
• Constraint Satisfaction and Optimization: Distributed CSP/Optimization

Application Category

• Systems and Infrastructure for Web, Mobile and WoT: Experiences and lessons learnt from Web-based algorithms and system deployments
• Responsible Web: Human-perceived consequences of algorithmic deployment on the web
• Search and Retrieval-Augmented AI: Agentic search

Abstract

Resilience in optical networks has traditionally relied on redundancy and pre-planned recovery strategies, both of which assume a certain level of disaster predictability. However, recent environmental changes such as climate shifts, the evolution of communication services, and rising geopolitical risks have increased the unpredictability of disasters, reducing the effectiveness of conventional resilience approaches. To address this unpredictability, this paper introduces the concept of agile resilience, which emphasizes dynamic adaptability across multiple operators and layers. We identify key requirements and challenges, and present enabling technologies for the realization of agile resilience. Using a field-deployed transmission system, we demonstrate rapid system characterization, optical path provisioning, and database migration within six hours. These results validate the effectiveness of the proposed enabling technologies and confirm the feasibility of agile resilience.

Problem

• Overcoming unpredictable disasters in optical networks
• Addressing limitations of redundancy-based resilience approaches
• Developing agile resilience through dynamic multi-layer adaptability

Innovation

• Agile resilience concept for dynamic adaptability
• Enabling technologies for multi-operator layer integration
• Six-hour system characterization and path provisioning