| Link failures are a common cause of service disruptions in computer networks. When a network link fails, all communications using that link are interrupted. Techniques have been deployed to improve the consequences of hardware failure networks by rerouting traffic from the failed link to other working links. The main theme of this thesis is to develop methods and tools that study and evaluate Fast ReRoute (FRR) schemes. These schemes offer fast recovery around failed components in packet networks.;In our tests, we consider single link failures protected with pre-provisioned backup paths using Traffic Engineering (TE)-FRR tunnels, or IP Fast ReRoute (IP-FRR) alternate paths. We evaluate the two techniques through experimentation. For this purpose a testbed, consisting of Juniper and Nortel equipments, is established.;First, we investigate and evaluate several network protection techniques by carrying out tests in a research testbed environment. We show the effect of link failures for several recovery scenarios, including: IGP recovery, global or end-to-end recovery, and local or segment recovery. We also study, implement and evaluate the performance of two FRR mechanisms in IP/MPLS core networks. Such mechanisms enable, in the case of a network fault, the fast switchover of protected traffic onto pre-established backup paths within 50 ms to minimize traffic loss. |
