Flexible shared mesh protection services for intelligent TDM-based optical transport networks

1. A system comprising:

one or more active/working circuit groups to transfer information through a protection domain,

the protection domain defined by a plurality of network devices and a plurality of links connecting the plurality of network devices between a start point and an end point;

a primary protection circuit through the protection domain,

the primary protection circuit being disjoint from the one or more active/working circuit groups and providing shared protection for the one or more active/working circuit groups,

the primary protection circuit being comprised of an individual protection circuit,

a capacity of the primary protection circuit being dynamically adjusted when a protection bandwidth ratio is outside a predetermined threshold, and

the protection bandwidth ratio being based on a total bandwidth of the one or more active/working circuit groups divided by a total available protection bandwidth of the primary protection circuit;

a secondary protection circuit,

the secondary protection circuit providing shared protection for the one or more active/working circuit groups, and

the secondary protection circuit being used to restore one or more faults when a worst case protection bandwidth exceeds a particular threshold associated with the capacity of the primary protection circuit; and

a processor to:

receive a request to remove one of the primary protection circuit or the secondary protection circuit;

designate one of the primary protection circuit or the secondary protection circuit for removal based on a comparison of respective bandwidths of the primary protection circuit and the secondary protection circuit;

re-route each path associated with the designated one of the primary protection circuit or the secondary protection circuit,

the processor, when re-routing each path, being to one of:

re-route each path to the one of primary protection circuit or the secondary protection circuit that is not designated for removal, or

re-route each path to another secondary protection circuit,

 the other secondary protection circuit being different than the secondary protection circuit; and

update the protection bandwidth ratio for each of the one or more active/working circuit groups.

2. The system of claim 1 , where the plurality of links supports at least one of:

an external-network network interface (E-NNI); or

an internal-network network interface (I-NNI).

3. The system of claim 1 , where the secondary protection circuit is disjoint from the primary protection circuit.

4. The system of claim 1 , where each of the one or more active/working circuit groups comprises a fully disjoint prototype path.

5. The system of claim 1 , further comprising:

a storage device to store a protection circuit group table with a registration of at least one of the primary protection circuit or the secondary protection circuit and a current status of at least one of the primary protection circuit or the secondary protection circuit.

6. The system of claim 5 , where the storage device is further to store one or more of:

an available bandwidth for protection in the primary protection circuit,

a total available protection bandwidth of the primary protection circuit, or

a protection type of the primary protection circuit.

7. The system of claim 1 , further comprising:

a storage device to store an active/working circuit group table with a registration of each of the one or more active/working circuit groups and a current status of each of the one or more active/working circuit groups.

8. The system of claim 1 , where

each active/working circuit group comprises one or more individual circuit segments, and

an information stream from the one or more individual circuit segments of the one or more active/working circuit groups is automatically switched to at least one of the primary protection circuit or the secondary protection circuit in the event of a failure of the one or more individual circuit segments.

9. The system of claim 1 , where at least two of the one or more active/working circuit groups, the primary protection circuit, or the secondary protection circuit are of different circuit types.

10. A method comprising:

selecting, by one or more devices, one or more prototype paths over a protection domain within an optical transport network,

the prototype paths defining an active/working circuit group;

configuring, by the one or more devices, a primary protection circuit over the protection domain to provide shared protection for the active/working circuit group,

the primary protection circuit being disjoint from the active/working circuit group;

calculating, by the one or more devices, a protection bandwidth ratio based on a total available protection bandwidth of the primary protection circuit and a total bandwidth of the active/working circuit group;

dynamically adjusting, by the one or more devices, a capacity of the primary protection circuit when the protection bandwidth ratio is outside a predetermined threshold;

determining, by the one or more devices, whether the dynamically adjusted capacity of the primary protection circuit satisfies a worst case protection bandwidth threshold;

adding, by the one or more devices and when the dynamically adjusted capacity of the primary protection circuit does not satisfy a worst case protection bandwidth threshold, a secondary protection circuit,

the secondary protection circuit being to provide shared protection for the active/working circuit group;

receiving a request to remove one of the primary protection circuit or the secondary protection circuit;

designating one of the primary protection circuit or the secondary protection circuit for removal based on a comparison of respective bandwidths of the primary protection circuit and the secondary protection circuit;

re-routing each path associated with the designated one of the primary protection circuit or the secondary protection circuit,

the re-routing each path including one of:

re-routing each path to the one of primary protection circuit or the secondary protection circuit that is not designated for removal, or

re-routing each path to another secondary protection circuit,

the other secondary protection circuit being different than the secondary protection circuit; and

updating the protection bandwidth ratio for each of the one or more active/working circuit groups.

11. The method of claim 10 , further comprising:

automatically switching an information stream from an individual circuit segment of the active/working circuit group to at least one of the primary protection circuit or the secondary protection circuit when a failure of the individual circuit segment is detected.

12. The method of claim 10 , where the active/working circuit group and the protection circuit are of different types.

13. The method of claim 10 , where an amount of prototype paths in the active/working circuit group is adjusted dynamically.

14. The method of claim 10 ,

where the secondary protection circuit is disjoint from the primary protection circuit.

15. The method of claim 10 , where the protection domain includes an internal-network network interface (I-NNI) domain or an external-network network interface (E-NNI) domain.

16. The method of claim 10 , where the protection domain includes at least one internal-network network interface (I-NNI) domain and at least one external-network network interface (E-NNI) domain.

17. The method of claim 10 , further comprising:

creating an active/working circuit group table for each prototype path.

18. A system comprising:

a plurality of circuits;

a primary protection circuit;

a secondary protection circuit; and

a transport network, including a shared protection mechanism, that:

allows a quantity of circuits, of the plurality of circuits, between a particular start point and particular end point to increase in real-time,

dynamically adjusts a capacity of the primary protection circuit when a protection bandwidth ratio is outside a predetermined threshold, the protection bandwidth ratio being based on a total bandwidth of the number of circuits divided by a total available protection bandwidth of the primary protection circuit,

determines whether the dynamically adjusted capacity of the primary protection circuit satisfies a worst case protection bandwidth threshold;

adds, when the dynamically adjusted capacity of the primary protection circuit does not satisfy a worst case protection bandwidth threshold, the secondary protection circuit,

the secondary protection circuit being to provide shared protection for the active/working circuit group;

receives a request to remove one of the primary protection circuit or the secondary protection circuit;

designates one of the primary protection circuit or the secondary protection circuit for removal based on a comparison of respective bandwidths of the primary protection circuit and the secondary protection circuit;

re-routes each path associated with the designated one of the primary protection circuit or the secondary protection circuit,

the re-routing each path including to one of:

re-routing each path to the one of primary protection circuit or the secondary protection circuit that is not designated for removal, or

re-routing each path to another secondary protection circuit,

 the other secondary protection circuit being different than the secondary protection circuit; and

updates the protection bandwidth ratio for each of the one or more active/working circuit groups.

19. The system of claim 18 , where the transport network automatically switches an information stream to at least one of the primary protection circuit or the secondary protection circuit in the event of a failure of a circuit.

20. A system comprising:

one or more devices to:

select one or more prototype paths over a protection domain within an optical transport network, the one or more prototype paths defining an active/working circuit group;

select a primary protection circuit over the protection domain to provide shared protection for the active/working circuit group, the protection circuit being disjoint from the active/working circuit group;

dynamically adjust a capacity of the primary protection circuit when a protection bandwidth ratio is outside a predetermined threshold,

the protection bandwidth ratio being based on a total bandwidth of the active/working circuit group divided by a total available protection bandwidth of the primary protection circuit;

determine whether the dynamically adjusted capacity of the primary protection circuit satisfies a worst case protection bandwidth threshold;

add, when the dynamically adjusted capacity of the primary protection circuit does not satisfy a worst case protection bandwidth threshold, the secondary protection circuit,

the secondary protection circuit being to provide shared protection for the active/working circuit group;

receive a request to remove one of the primary protection circuit or the secondary protection circuit;

designate one of the primary protection circuit or the secondary protection circuit for removal based on a comparison of respective bandwidths of the primary protection circuit and the secondary protection circuit;

re-route each path associated with the designated one of the primary protection circuit or the secondary protection circuit,

the one or more devices, when re-routing each path, being to one of:

re-route each path to the one of primary protection circuit or the secondary protection circuit that is not designated for removal, or

re-route each path to another secondary protection circuit,

 the other secondary protection circuit being different than the secondary protection circuit; and

update the protection bandwidth ratio for each of the one or more active/working circuit groups.