Just-in-time Restoration with Distributed Fiber Sensing in Metropolitan Optical Networks

Abstract

Distributed Fiber Sensing (DFS) leverages optical backscattering signals to predict failure events and enable just-in-time restoration in metropolitan optical networks, i.e., without optical amplifiers. In this paper, we study the effectiveness of proactive restoration based on DFS information in all-optical networks, while considering different sensing devices' capabilities. We evaluate whether restoration can be provisioned just-in-time before a failure happens, and its impact on key performance metrics, including the number of affected and suspended optical circuits, bandwidth blocking rate, and service downtime. Simulation results demonstrate that just-in-time restoration enabled by DFS with a prediction time capability of 15~ms can reduce circuit disruptions by more than 90\% compared to restoration without sensing and ensure optical service continuity in optical networks comparable to resource-intensive protection schemes, at a fraction of the spectral resources.