Support for incident management in optical networks through critical points identification

In incident management for optical networks, when a fault or event occurs, a network element will often send a notification, in the form of an "alarm", to operators and managers. Alarms contain valuable information to support the fault management process at the operating level, because it is a persistent indication of a fault. Alarms usually clear only with the triggering of the solution for its cause. To mitigate business risks related to faults in optical networks, service managers need to estimate the impact of a network fault in relation to business needs. In optical networks, identifying redundancy points of high-impact on the network is still a challenge for managers. They often rely on their own experience to prioritize points that possibly need to have redundancy in those networks. This work presents a simulation model capable of locating suitable points for the application of asset redundancy to reduce optical network disruptions, based on business risk. The model is implemented in a software tool and then used in a case study of two reference networks, whose elements may fail according to a realistic failure scenario. Results of the study allow face validity with preliminary evidence that the model is useful to support incident management in optical networks.